Latest / Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul / Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync | Push & Pause: Finding Balance in The Waxing Moon & Your Inner Spring

Transcript

Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync | Push & Pause: Finding Balance in The Waxing Moon & Your Inner Spring · 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: I am, as always, so delighted to be here with you today.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm extra delighted to be here with you today because I've had so much more space to really feel into today's episode with the shift in my schedule.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm really looking forward to exploring the duality of this waxing moontime, as this is really a topic that is near and dear and close to my heart.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's really something that I personally have been navigating for probably about a year now.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really excited to be able to share some of the fruits of that exploration in today's episode.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Before we begin, I'll invite us to take a moment of silence, perhaps maybe of stillness.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And in this minute of silence or stillness, you are invited to first just come into a place of more presence with yourself, whatever that may look like for you today.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: You might be driving or have some other things going on in the background, and wherever you are is okay.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe seeing what it would be like to slow down or to begin maybe focusing maybe on one thing instead of two, or perhaps literally stopping whatever you're doing and really taking in this moment to simply be.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: I also invite you to notice what's alive for you in your inner world today, noticing how your energy is feeling, how your body is feeling, maybe how your mind, your heart, or your spirit is feeling, and also kind of noticing where you might be in your unique rhythm.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna give you a minute to do that in silence now.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: What really stood out to me today was this very familiar, pleasant sensation that I often get when it's hard to articulate, but it's a message to me from my system that I'm on to something or that there's a charge here.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that was interesting to have appear in that minute.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was a bit unexpected and warmly welcomed because, like I said, it's a familiar, pleasant sensation to me.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it feels like this is gonna be a juicy episode.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like I mentioned when we started, I had a lot more time today to really drop into my work this week with the shift of my schedule.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that probably is contributing to the jiciness as well.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm also probably ovulating today, according to my Mira hormone tracking device.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: I am cycle day 14 today, and I'm feeling pretty good.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm having some small histamine responses because if you live locally here in Sacramento, then you know it was quite windy this weekend.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Not even quite windy, it was like windstorm levels, and it stirred up a lot for most of us anyway.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Just kind of having um a little bit of congestion and these little moments of underneath the skin itching, which is from the histamine I know.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: So just kind of tracking that because there is this relationship between estrogen and histamine, and so as my estrogen goes up, then my histamine can go up, and as my histamine goes up, my estrogen can go up.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm definitely elevated hormonally today that I'm still feeling much better than I have been in previous cycles.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it seems that the supplements I've been taking have been really, really, really supportive.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I trust that as my schedule changes too, and I have more space and a slightly less of a workload, not slightly, significantly less of a workload for the next four weeks.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious to see how my body might adjust to that as well.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, overall, doing quite well today and really looking forward to diving into our conversation today.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: This week we are attuning to the energy of the waxing moon.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And as we move through Gemini season, we are exploring the duality of each phase of the cycle.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: This particular phase is one that I've come to know quite intimately because honestly, there's a lot more nuance here than I originally realized.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: When I first began tracking my menstrual cycle and working intentionally with the moon phases, this was something I didn't really see talked about very much online or anywhere that I was reading about these things, whether it was in books or blog posts.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it really wasn't until I began paying close attention to my own lived experience that I started noticing another layer to the waxing moon phase.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because the moon is waxing, the light is building, meaning that the energy behind your intentions may begin to start growing and taking roots and stretching and reaching towards the sun.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: You can think of this as a transition into a more yang-oriented energy.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit more active, a little bit more outward.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: You might even say it's more masculine in quality.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: But something that's really important to note here is that this is a transitional energy.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's moving from a deeply receptive, intuitive, inward qualities of the new moon and menstruation into a more activated energy of movement, momentum, and becoming.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like early spring, this phase carries both softness and emergence, tender green shoots, pushing up through cold soil, new life awakening, and still quite delicate.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that was something I didn't really understand when I first began working with my menstrual cycle and the moon phases as well, especially during the follicular phase, specifically in the menstrual cycle.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of what I was reading online framed this phase as a go-go go phase, the planning phase.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about productivity and making things happen and doing more intense workouts like HIIT workouts and running, um, really intense strength training is also about socializing.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And there's just this overall flavor of more intensity and more output.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, even just naming all of that now, I can feel my nervous system tightening up a little bit because it sounds like a lot.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because it is a lot.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: But for a while, I genuinely thought something was wrong with me.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that maybe my rhythm was off because when I tried approaching my inner spring in this hyper-productive way, I found myself burning out even before I reached ovulation or right around ovulation itself.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I've talked about this a lot in our Monday episode.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've been here a while, you've probably been able to witness some of my own experimentation and exploration around this.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: So this phase is absolutely a hot spot for me.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept running into the same wall over and over and over and over and over and over again, wondering, what the hell am I doing wrong?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually, through tracking and again, really exploring my own lived experience versus what they tell me my phase should be like online.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, receiving guidance from my menstrual cycle coach, shout out to Hannah of Waking Womb, amazing.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Through all of these layers, I began to understand something really important that this phase is not just about acceleration.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, there is upward movement, yes, there is action, yes, there is growth, and there is also restoration needed here.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: And research on nervous system, on the nervous system, supports this.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: It really shows this cyclical rhythm.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Human beings in general, and especially women, are not designed for a constant sympathetic activation.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sympathetic meaning that go, go, go energy about striving and output and more focus on productivity.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: A healthy nervous system naturally moves between periods of activation and settling, expanding and contracting, growing, reaching, and then recovering.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And this is exactly what nature does too.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine that.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And what I've really come to understand is that the body actually thrives on this oscillation.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny if you look at the breath, the breath teaches us this too.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: We inhale, we fill up, we exhale, we clear out, we contract, we let go, we expand, we contract, we push, and we pause.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this nature mirrors the rhythm everywhere.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Even in springtime, growth happens in pulses, right?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just happen all at once on one day or like over the course of however many days, consistently across all of those days.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: We experience this a lot here in Sacramento.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: We have these really warm, hot, sometimes sunny days, and then there'll be days followed by rain.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: That happens quite a lot here in Northern California.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you can see that the earth isn't just in this perpetual continuous blooming and growth either.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: So if that's what the earth does, and if we are earth, then it makes a lot of sense that I don't really think we biologically operate in that way either.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: So what I've come to really understand about the waxing moon phase and the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle is that there is this both and quality here.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Again, there's this reaching towards the sky and returning to the roots.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: There is a movement forward and then a coming back to yourself.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: There is efforting and pushing and taking action, and then there is nourishing and tending and really taking care of your system.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: This phase asks us to really strengthen and fortify ourselves as we grow.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll be honest with you, I haven't mastered this phase.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I've gotten a lot better, so much better.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's far less burnout happening around ovulation than there used to be.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And this is still something that I really have to stay in relationship with because I know how easy it is to get swept away by the momentum, the obligations, the projects, the excitement, the social plans, and all the energy building around me.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm not careful, I get swept away, and then before I know it, I am depleted again.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that is your invitation this week to explore the speed up and the slowdown of this phase.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that looks like what I call push days, days where I'm in more of an outward, forward moving energy, not forcing myself, but gently writing that natural wave of activation that's available.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then I intentionally create pause days or pause periods, days where I rest and nourish and take a moment to stop reaching and striving towards something and just come back to myself and really check in with myself and see if there's anything that I need after that period of pushing a forward momentum.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's just a moment during your day where you pause long enough to notice your breath.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's just a micro moment for you to allow your shoulders to drop down from your ears and really come back into contact with that support underneath you, whether it's the chair or the floor.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, that's a big part of what these cycle sync episodes are about.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Even our minute of silence that we start with is an invitation to practice this rhythm of returning, pushing and pausing, reaching and rooting, expanding and contracting over and over and over and over again.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this is that rhythm.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: As we move into, or rather, as we move through springtime here in the northern hemisphere, this is something that I would invite you to continue exploring over the coming weeks because the season of spring carries the same energy, the same opportunity, these same themes.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: There can be so much excitement this time of year with social plans and weddings and projects and travel and birthdays and opportunities, and there is this momentum building everywhere around us.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if we aren't intentional, we can show up to summer already exhausted.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this week, I invite you to notice where life is asking you to grow and to also notice where your body may be asking you to slow down enough to sustain that growth because sustainable blooming does require care and tending and nourishment.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like a little bit of support with that this week, I've included a donation based somatic meditation for you in the show notes.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: In the meantime, take care of yourselves and take care of each other.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I look forward to connecting with you in the next episode.