Latest / Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul / Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync - How to Pace Yourself with the Waxing Moon

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Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync - How to Pace Yourself with the Waxing Moon · 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: I am so honored that you have chosen to press play and that you've decided to spend a little bit of your precious time and energy with me today.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And when you are doing that, I truly believe you are doing so much more than just syncing with the cycles.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that when you choose to show up for this very specific kind of work that we are doing here on the show, you are choosing to embody a new way of being in our world.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we are in some very interesting times right now in our world.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: There continues to be big changes and shifts and violence, oppression.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's still happening, right?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so what a courageous, powerful, meaningful choice you've made to lean into something new, lean into values that go against what we are currently steeped in in our Western patriarchal society.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are returning here on the show, thank you as well for doing that too.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Especially if you've been here tuning in week after week, walking this path, doing this work.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's not easy, I'll tell you that.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't find it to be.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: I find it to be rewarding, yes, worth it, yes.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Easy, not so much.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's one of the reasons why I've created this community, this show, this place where we can maybe softly land, where we can feel seen, where we can feel heard, where our experiences as a woman can be validated.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that as you maybe softly land here each week, that you can begin to change and transform and become something that is more true, more true to who you really are and the power that you hold within, because whether you've tuned into it or not, that power to create literally lives inside you.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: This power to create, to change, is built in your biology, and it is mirrored through the phases of the moon and the phases of the menstrual cycle and the different seasons as well.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so, as you can maybe begin to sense, we're doing so much more than just cycle syncing here.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I say that a lot, and you'll probably hear me say it again because there's so much more to this work underneath the surface, and that's what we explore here in these weekly episodes.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: We've just wrapped up our mini-series in this episode, more specific to the menstrual cycle.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are wanting to more deeply understand how to work with your menstrual cycle, I invite you to go back and listen to the previous four weekly cycle sync episodes, and they are all named based off of each of the different cycles.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: So lots of information to explore in those episodes more specific about the menstrual cycle.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: As of today, as we are at the start of a new cycle, and also we are at the start of Sagittarius season, we are shifting our focus here in these episodes, and we are going back to our more normal focus, although we still weave in the menstrual cycle, the more normal normal focus, if you will, on the moon cycle and the seasons.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we're getting back that tip, excuse me, getting back to that today.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And before we begin, we will start with a minute of silence.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And in this minute of silence, you are invited to come into a place of more presence with yourself, whatever that looks like right here and now, whether you're driving or doing some chores or got something going on in the background, seeing what it would be like to slow down, even if it's just a little bit.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you've got two things going right now, can you do just one?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Can you take a deeper breath?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Can you allow your eyelids to close for a moment if you're not driving?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Can you start to become more aware of the parts of the body that are making contact with the floor or maybe the chair or whatever might be in your hands if there is anything?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And as you come into contact with those places of contact, seeing if you can begin to soften and relax here, even if it's just a little bit.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're able, maybe bringing your awareness to your breath and just having some nice breaths here in and out through the nose for about a minute.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Today I am cycle day five.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are new here, when I say cycle day five, that means I am on the fifth day of my menstrual cycle, day one being the start of my last bleed.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just about done making my way from my inner winter into my inner spring, which is exactly what we'll be exploring today.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: As far as how I'm doing cyclically right now, I've just completed a really big creative project with the um over at the school where I work part-time as a program specialist.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And my students had their big dance showcase today.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I noticed some tender parts sort of arising within me as I was kind of reflecting on the day and feeling into my body.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: I've got this thing going on on my shoulder that I often do when, yeah, I'm feeling a little tender, a little touched, and like I've been kind of pushing um harder than maybe my whole body would like to.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so there was a bit of that this past week as we were building up to this big showcase today.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: I did cut my work in about half this past week.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: I still had some work to do, and I was able to take a bath almost every single night, and I've got uh some extra sleep.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: I got some extra sleep and I took a nap yesterday in between things, and I prepped all of my food.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was amazing, right before my bleed, and so I really did not have to make any food for about four days.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was eating brownies and butternut squash soup and red sauce, spaghetti with grass-fed beef.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was perfect, as perfect as it could be without having to take time off of um work because I don't have full control over the schedule that I have with the part-time work that I do.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas if I'm in my practice, I do have a bit more control.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something new that I've been navigating.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so I feel like that went um went okay this past week.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it was really nice to have this big performance finished today, and the tender parts are rising because things didn't go exactly the way that I had hoped.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: There were some things that could have been smoothed out a bit more with logistics and things, and so yeah, just noticing my inner critic, my inner perfectionist sort of come up and kind of give me a hard time about it.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: So just took that minute to really sit with that part and offer it some love and remind it that, you know, remind her that she is um she is okay and that everything is okay.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And this is uh a familiar part around this inner spring phase, this sort of younger, more tender part can come as I expose myself in these more vulnerable spaces where this was something new that I had never done at the school before.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this was also my first time um creating something like this with this many students before.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: So there were about 130 or so all dancing, uh, the life cycle of the plant dance, actually.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, in front of their parents, and we had some important people from the district come, and I had to be there so early this morning, and um yeah, the early morning can be a little challenging for me.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I um was able to get there, but I find that is that is where I I can feel the most stress in the morning, is right when I first wake up.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so as I've been tracking my stress and my hormones, I've I've noticed like, ah, the mornings are so stressful.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've been looking at the mornings a bit more and was reminded of that again today when I had this performance right at 8 a.m.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: today, which meant I had to be there at 7:40 a.m.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: So my nervous system is is still sort of recovering, and I'm also not quite ready to leave the retreat of my inner winter, my red tent.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: So after I finish here today, I'll be taking um the rest of the evening and tomorrow and um possibly Sunday to yeah, really fill my cup and tend to myself and get ready to begin my inner spring, which aligns perfectly with the waxing moon.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that is what we are tuning to this week, the week of November 24th.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: The waxing moon is correlated with the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, the season of spring, and the element of wood.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And this is not just any waxing moon week, by the way, it's also Thanksgiving here in the United States, which marks the official start of holiday season.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, which I know can be such a time of stress for many people.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought this would be the perfect time to talk about pacing.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Pacing, by the way, is probably one of my biggest growth edges as a recovering workaholic and chronic doer, even with all of the insight and understanding I have now.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Pacing is its own art form, especially in our fast-paced modern world that is constantly telling us do more, go faster, push harder.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: There is no pacing in our Western culture.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Or rather, the pace is the speed of Amazon Prime, which is honestly just too damn convenient most of the time, isn't it?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're used to things arriving instantly at our doorstep, sometimes with literally one click of a button.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's done something to our psyche, especially when it comes to women's healing journeys.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because so often we're in a rush.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're in a rush to make the pain go away.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're in a rush to get the relationship we desire, we're in a rush to move on, a rush to get to the next appointment, a rush to get to the next version of ourselves.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: We want what we want, and we want it yesterday.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just as guilty.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is the day and age that we live in.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: So no wonder pacing feels tricky.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: At least I know it's been really challenging for me.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever I get caught in that sense of urgency, I always look to nature for deeper understanding.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Think of a flower, the whole process from seed to bloom, it takes time.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have a garden and you've actually experienced this, watching the seeds that you are attending to slowly grow over time.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you might have noticed that sometimes there are these big bursts of growth where you walk by one day and you think, wow, when did this flower start to open?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then there are those days, those other days, when you walk by and it looks exactly the same.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like nothing has happened.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, even in those still quiet days, so much is happening beneath the surface that the eye can't see.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what the flower is never doing?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: The flower is never wondering, when will I bloom?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: It trusts its own process of growth and change.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe you can think of yourself and your healing journey in that way too.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: My quiet walks, just watching nature, really helped me to remember this truth over and over and over again.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Life is not a race, despite what capitalism has conditioned us to believe.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the reasons why I love working with cycles, because working with the cycle is pacing.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: This week we get to lean into this energy of spring.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's a newness here, and also a tenderness, a fresh energy, but also this in-between moment of transition.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to healing, pacing is everything because trauma often happens when something is too much too fast.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: So slowing down in any way is inherently therapeutic, or at least soothing to the nervous system, while it may not feel like that at first, depending on your history.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I would invite you to explore brushing your teeth slower, talking slower, reading slower, walking slower.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: There's this old military saying, slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning things actually speed up when we slow down.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're moving more intentionally and efficiently.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, how can you move more intentionally this week?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: I like to play with push and pause days.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: On the days when I have energy, I'll go for a big push.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'll get a lot done, really ride that momentum.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Momentum.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: If I still have the energy the next day, or if I have more obligations, I might do another push day.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then I intentionally place a pause day.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually have a pause day built into my week.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's Wednesday.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't see clients, I don't teach classes.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: I might go to a class or work on some art, maybe do a call with my mentorship group.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a day of the week where I intentionally don't have a lot going on.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it's up to me to really protect that time.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like last week when a client asked if I could do a session on Wednesday, and I had to say no.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't see clients on Wednesdays.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: That was hard, but I did it because I understand the importance of having a pause day in the middle of my week when Mondays are big push days for me, Tuesdays are big push days for me.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thursdays are usually a little bit more low-key.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so I know after a big push on Monday and Tuesday, like I'm really going to need a pause day.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a day for me to rest.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's a day to let the universe catch up, a day to breathe again before the next push comes.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of reminds me the of the process of birth as well.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: There are these big pushes of the contractions, and then these moments of pause where nothing's happening, and there's this period of waiting again.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Or like the season of spring, depending on where you live in the world.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Here in Sacramento, we have this season we call faux spring, where it's technically spring, but it's still wet and rainy and cold.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then there'll be these days where the sun is out and the temperature warms up, and you think, oh, it really is spring.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then two days later the rain comes back and it's cold again.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is the dance of spring.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this is also the dance of growth and healing and change.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: None of it happens all at once.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: It takes time.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: It takes pacing.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: It takes trust.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I invite you this week to take your sweet, sweet time.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And if you need support easing into a slower, more intentional rhythm, I've added some free meditations for you to explore on Insight Timer.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you can find them linked in the show notes.