Latest / Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul / Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync — How to Transition Out of Go-Mode and Into Rest

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Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync — How to Transition Out of Go-Mode and Into Rest · 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: If this is your first time here, welcome.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so honored and delighted that you chose to press play on today's episode.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if this is not your first time here, if you are returning, welcome back.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Truly an honor as well to have you returning and choosing to spend your time with me.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: As one of my mentors always says, there are so many other things that we could be doing or streaming or consuming or listening to, and yet a very what I believe to be wise and courageous part of you chose to tune in to this particular episode.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there's no, um, how do I say, I believe this isn't an accident.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that if you have found your way to this episode, that there truly is something here for you to learn about, to grow through, to become more aware of.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what these episodes are really all about, especially for those of us who are truly desiring to live more in alignment with our feminine energy, our feminine power, our feminine way of being.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's not to say that it solves all of our problems and that all of our problems magically go away.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the case at all.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: But it can change the way we approach the problems or maybe the challenges of our lives, and it can help us to become more aware and to have a greater understanding of what's happening.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Our minds love to know.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so if we can have this awareness, like, ah, yes, there is this unseen energy that is influencing how I'm feeling right now, we can begin to maybe soften and relax a little bit because we know and we understand.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I know for me, as someone who loves to know and loves to understand, it really allows me to take that, yeah, just that exhale and bring in this layer of acceptance, acceptance of what is.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we'll be doing here today on the show.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And before we go into today's uh particular focus, I want to get started with a minute of silence.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is something we always do in these Monday episodes.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in this moment of silence, this minute of silence, you are invited to come into a place of more presence with yourself, whatever that looks like for you today.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're driving, maybe you've got something going on in the background, maybe your hands are busy with something, or you're doing some cooking or some cleaning.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe you don't stop because I know when I've got a podcast on and I'm doing something, I don't necessarily want to stop, but see if you can slow down or at least become more present in whatever it is that you are doing.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: If your hands are busy, then noticing the things making contact with your hands.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you're driving, same idea.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Noticing your hands on the steering wheel, your back against the chair.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've got two tasks going, so for example, if you're listening to this and working on something, could you maybe stop working on something for just this minute?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm already noticing myself take a deeper breath as I invite us into this place of pause, this place of just checking in and noticing what's here, noticing how your energy level is today, noticing how your heart is feeling today, noticing how your spirit is feeling today.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And also maybe noticing how the mind is feeling today, and where you might be in your inner rhythm.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give you some time to do that now.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Felt like that went by really fast for me today.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: As far as my check-in, my cyclical experience in this moment, I am cycle day 19.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just coming out of my inner summer and transitioning into my inner autumn.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm happy to share that my inner summer this past uh week or so was much smoother than it's been the last few months.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that felt like a small win for me.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I was sure to take note of the things that I was doing.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've got some notes in my notes app that I can come back to the next time my inner spring rolls around so that I can hopefully have another inner summer that's a bit smoother than the ones I've been experiencing.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: I still had a peak moment of perhaps discomfort, I might say, more around my ovaries and um perhaps my uh like some GI issues.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a bit surprising.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I had some acupuncture done today, and we worked on some points supporting the digestive system and the um the stomach and the spleen meridians, and I'm feeling quite grounded after that appointment, and I'm really looking forward to having the next couple of days off to recalibrate, to rest, and to make this transition into my inner fall, which is honestly right on theme with our focus for today.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: This week we are tuning to the energy of the waning moon.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: But before we dive in, I want to ask, how was that full moon for you?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Were there things illuminated?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Did anything become more clear?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Did you notice truths rising to the surface either gently or maybe not so gently?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: This particular full moon carried a powerful clarity to it, and before we shift gears, it's important to acknowledge everything that has unfolded and everything that is still unfolding.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're also slowly approaching the winter solstice here in the northern hemisphere, a moment that marks the returning of the light and our descent into the coldest months of the year.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Winter is the season where I do my deepest inner work.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Every year I take two to three, two to three weeks off from classes and clients to reconnect with my creative vision.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I rest, I reset, I create as much space and quiet as possible.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I know this is the opposite of what's happening culturally around us in the U.S.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: The holidays crank the energy up while our bodies are asking us to downshift.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about this last week, and honestly, we're probably going to talk about it a few more times because it's one of the biggest friction points of the entire year for women who are trying to live cyclically and intentionally.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: If breaking old patterns, living cyclically, and creating something new for yourself and your family is important, there is a major opportunity to go against the grain.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you love the holiday rush, beautiful.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: But if it's pulling you out of alignment with your healing and your creative rhythm and your process of change and transformation, this is your permission slip to do something different.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And with the waning moon this week, this is a very real invitation to begin shifting, changing, and transforming after the illuminations of the full moon.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe after some illuminations of your holiday weekend.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: The waning energy is a transition into the yin energy.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's a slow turning inward.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, this transition from go go go to BBB has always been one of the hardest parts of my cyclical practice.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it got me curious about why transitions feel so hard, especially for women.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting research actually backs this up.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, women carry the majority of the world's unpaid and emotional labor, which keeps the nervous system in a chronic state of vigilance.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: The National Partnership for Women and Families reports that women perform over 60% of unpaid care work globally.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: This invisible labor significantly increases mental load, and studies show it directly contributes to overwhelm, burnout, and difficulty relaxing.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Two, women experience tired but wired at higher rates.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because women are twice as likely to experience anxiety disorders, often due to the interaction of estrogen and stress hormones like cortisol, and to adverse childhood experiences and trauma.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: High cortisol disrupts our ability to downshift, leading to the exact state we're talking about, exhausted but unable to rest.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And three, Bernay Brown's research on vulnerability and overfunctioning shows that many women use busyness as a protective strategy.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Damn, that's me right there.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Our busyness becomes an armor.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And slowing down can activate vulnerability, which is why rest, even when we crave it, can be so deeply uncomfortable.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: So when we zoom out, the struggle to transition into rest isn't a personal flaw.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's a nervous system conditioned by culture, responsibility, and survival, which is why tending to the transitions is such powerful work.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do we tend to this transition into the yin?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: One of the best ways I know to soften the transitions between moon phases, between seasons, between menstrual cycle phases, between the chapters of my day is through ritual.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Just last night I closed out my inner summer with a flower bath and a moment of reflection underneath the full moon.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: I felt a spontaneous impulse to make a little offering outside.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I arrange flowers, crystals, and a spell bag as a symbolic marking of my shift from inner summer into inner autumn.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I keep a small tray of self-care tools in my bathroom, and when I switch phases, I change out the tools and the medicines that I keep there.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's a tiny act that signals to my nervous system we are entering a new season, and it's time to start transitioning.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: After every full moon, I declutter and reorganize even just a drawer or a corner because that clarity helps carry me into the waning phase with more spaciousness.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: So your waning moon invitation this week with the new moon arriving right alongside the winter solstice right before Christmas.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is a beautiful time to start preparing yourself for the descent into the deeper yin qualities.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: You might ask yourself, how can I tend to this transition?
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: What do I want to prepare or release?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Where can I block out time for rest, creativity, or stillness?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe how do you need to support your nervous system as you transition into this more yin equality?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: This reminds me of a one-on-one breath work I had in person this week where I live here in Sacramento.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And this woman had come to me feeling incredibly stressed and overwhelmed.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And her big intention for our sessions was to de-stress and to, I don't want to say calm down, but to bring to really soothe that activation in her system.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: And in her session this week, she was able to really deeply rest and relax in a way that I had yet to see.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the session, she had this beautiful awareness that she could, in fact, relax.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: She was so used to being pulled in all directions and taking care of everyone else and being constantly stressed out and on the edge of overwhelm that she literally didn't think it was possible for her to rest and slow down and feel not stressed.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And she was surprised that with the right tools, with the right layers of support, that she was in fact able to get into that more restful, more yin-like state.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I share that to say if you are someone who resonates with this tired but wired feeling, if you are someone who maybe like this client doesn't feel like feeling less stressed and being restful is possible for you.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: May this be an example of what is possible for you with the right tools and the right support.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you find that you do need support with these themes this week, you'll find a few free somatic meditations waiting for you in the show notes, all designed to help you slow down, tend to your nervous system, and ease into this next phase of the cycle with more intention and more grace.