Latest / Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul / Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync | The Duality of the Full Moon: Celebration, Intensity, and Healing

Transcript

Moon Phases & Feminine Power: Your Weekly Cycle Sync | The Duality of the Full Moon: Celebration, Intensity, and Healing · Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul

• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Healing Her Story Podcast.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: I am, as always, so delighted to be here with you today and really looking forward to exploring another juicy discussion today on all things full moon.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: If this is your first time here, welcome.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's such a joy and honor and a privilege to be able to share this space with you, to be able to help you remember this feminine wisdom that I believe already lives inside of you.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: If you are returning, welcome back.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: I truly do not take your attention and your time and your presence for granted.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: We live in a world where we have so many choices.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: There are so many things you could be streaming and watching and listening to, and yet a part of you chose to listen to this.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for that.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: And really appreciate you being here and continuing to be here.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: As I already sort of named, we're going to be exploring the energy of the full moon today.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: And before we do, I want to invite us into a moment of stillness and silence as we always do on these Monday episodes.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: And in this minute of silence and stillness, you are invited to come into a place of more presence with yourself.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you know that may look different.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: That might look different than what you quote unquote think it should be.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: I really encourage you to explore what more presence looks like for you today in this moment, where you are right here, right now.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that could mean you're maybe driving.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: I know I often listen to podcasts when I'm driving, and so if you are exploring what being more present driving might be like.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not driving, let's say you're doing something in the background, maybe chores or preparing a meal.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: I know I often do that when I'm listening to podcasts, seeing what it would be like to be more present in whatever it is that you're doing.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Or if you are in the unique, what I would consider to be a unique situation for me, the unique experience of being able to really just sit and be, then maybe that's something you want to explore for a moment here too.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: And why I really want you encouraged to take this time a bit more mindfully is because with the full moon, there can be this inherent alotness, if you will, this fullness, and our hearts and our minds and our bodies and our systems, but especially the heart, which is the organ that is associated with this phase, it really benefits from space.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: So creating some space for yourself here in some way.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'll invite you to stay with either two things, one of two things, or both if it feels right for you in this minute.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: The first invitation to be real uh to be sit with your heart, and if it feels right, you might want to take a hand to your heart and hold your hand there for a minute.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then the second invitation is to stay with the space, stay with the silence, and to maybe see what that experience is like for you today.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna give you a moment to explore those things or really anything that feels right for you in this minute, and we will begin our minute of silence now.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe taking a moment here to note anything that may have stood out to you.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: What stood out to me was that I almost immediately went into humming this song by one of my favorite all-female singer-songwriter groups, and I just love this song.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: It just came out the other day, and it's such a sweet song, and I think it to me really does have this element that really ties to our conversation today.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that felt quite synchronistic.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: I also checked in with where I'm at in my menstrual cycle.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: And today I am cycle day 15, and I'm definitely feeling the fullness as I'm sort of starting to wrap up my inner summer.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, as often happens, I'm feeling quite aligned with this energy, um, the energy that I'm recording in today, even though I'm recording ahead of time.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I always really enjoy when that happens.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's quite a delight to me and feels very confirming too.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like this is a conversation that I'm meant to be having today at this place, at this time.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: So that's all I've really shared today.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: I really want to dive into the meat, if you will, of today's episode.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: So let's begin.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: As I've already named, this week we're tuning to the energy of the full moon.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: And the full moon peaked on Sunday, and as this episode is airing on Monday, we are still very much moving through that full moon energy.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: And as we continue moving through Gemini season, we're also exploring these phases through the lens of duality.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: So today we're going to be exploring the duality of the full moon, and there's so much here.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: The full moon is associated with the ovulation time in the menstrual cycle, with the season of summer, and with the element of fire, and as I shared, also with the uh the organ of the heart.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you may remember these things if you followed along with our Taurus season mini-series that we did our last cycle.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: And honestly, this is a really interesting topic for me to explore because the full moon can be such an intense and a complex time, which, as I've tracked my own menstrual cycle, I feel like this is where I was really able to understand that on a deeper lever level because I was finding so much complexity and intensity in my inner summer.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't really understand why.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: And now I do.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's always going to be a mixture of both hand during this phase in my experience.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I think this is so because the full moon is a time of illumination.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: There is an inherent fullness during this phase, and in that illumination, certain aspects of ourselves and of our lives suddenly come into the spotlight.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now, one component of the full moon that I honestly don't see talked about enough, and something that I really tried to emphasize quite often here on the show is this idea of celebration and culmination.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: The full moon can spotlight the things in our lives that are actually going really well.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: It can illuminate the places where things are coming together.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: It shows us where our intentions are beginning to manifest, where projects are beginning to reach completion.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes in this phase, we can see the actual physical expression of something that we've been tending to for weeks, months, or sometimes even years.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: And wow, I don't know about you, but I know for me there can be so much joy and gratitude and fulfillment and pleasure and satisfaction and appreciation and celebration in that.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I do think that sometimes we move past that part too quickly.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: I've definitely been noticing that in myself over the last few days as I've been moving through my own inner summer, there's been this feeling of things really coming together for me recently.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: For example, just today, I found out that I received a scholarship for my master's program, which feels like such a huge celebration landing here in my inner summer.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I also recently completed a really big project last week.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: And even though technically that completion happened slightly in the phase before, I can feel the culmination of it really landing now in my body.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I especially noticed it on my walk today.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: There was this really big energetic and physical shift as the demands of the season have begun to lessen.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And as I was on my walk, I could just feel the lightness and the joy and the ease, and then just the like, ah wow, it's so beautiful out of here.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm on this walk, I'm so grateful.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really noticing there's more space, and I really do feel like on a somatic level, like there's more room for me to breathe again.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that is so warmly welcomed.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: So if you are resonating with these themes right now, I encourage you to soak it in.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: What would it be like to really savor it?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: To really enjoy it like you were enjoying your favorite meal without rushing past it and immediately moving on to the next thing.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: What would it be like to allow yourself to enjoy the sweetness of what's unfolding and culminating for you, even if it's seems small.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's something I'm personally really going to be leaning into over these next few days as I'm wrapping up my inner summer phase and allowing myself to actually feel the fullness of what is coming together.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as I said earlier, the full moon can illuminate things in our lives that are going well.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: And here we go.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: Here's the duality.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: It can also illuminate the things in our life that are maybe not going so well.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's old patterns or habits or relationships or ways of relating or being.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: These are sometimes things that we could maybe previously avoid or kind of keep in the background, but because the full moon illuminates and it kind of brings it into the forefront, it can sometimes feel very confronting to have all of these things sort of come up and just be looking you in the face.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that can also feel very destabilizing when aspects of ourselves and of our lives are just suddenly so clearly not working.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really, again, very obvious to us.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: And because this can also be a time of celebration, culmination, and things coming together, it can also be as much of a time of heightened emotions, intensity, volatility, unexpected realizations, things becoming impossible to ignore.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: And just like with every phase, I do believe there is wisdom here.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: The wisdom of learning how to hold both.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: Holding the celebration and the emotional intensity at the same time.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Holding the gratitude and the exhaustion at the same time.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: As I was preparing for this episode, I sort of reflected on what I'd been going through for the past couple of weeks with my teaching artist residency.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: These last couple of weeks felt very full moon to me, if you will, even though it was not actually a full moon.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: My days were incredibly long and full and energetically demanding and physically demanding, if I'm being really honest.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: There were definitely moments where I was reaching the edge of my capacity.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it's only like four or five days later that I'm finally now beginning to like come back to myself again.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, as intense and as unideal and exhausting as those two weeks were, there were also these really incredibly beautiful moments.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Moments of connection and sweetness and love and joy and meeting.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: I having a memory sort of rising right now with one of the little girls from my class, and I won't get into the whole story, but it was just such a sweet moment with her to be able to reflect something to her and to plant this little seed in her beautiful, wise nervous system.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think I had told her something that she had never been told before.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: I told her to just be herself.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: She was trying to be like the other girls in her class basically as we were creating our final um routines with their solos and their duets, and they got to share some of their own creative expression through movement.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: They got to create it themselves and decide what they wanted to do, and I could see her really striving to be like the other girls.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I just got down on her level and I looked her in the eyes and I said, Can I tell you something?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: She said, Yeah.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: I said, just be yourself.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was such a sweet, sweet, sweet moment.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: So even as and as busy as those days were, wow, there were so many beautiful moments like that.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: And also really celebratory moments for me professionally and in my personal life as well.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I think part of what allowed me to move through that season with more grace was my willingness to allow both experiences to coexist, to stop fighting the intensity, to stop making the intensity wrong, to just simply acknowledge, wow, this is a lot.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: And keeping a lightness about it.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: And interestingly enough, when I allowed myself to accept the truth instead of resisting it, my nervous system softened.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: And as my system softened, I became more available to see the beauty that was also present in that intensity.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think this is such an important part of life and of healing.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: Life is inherently complex.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: It is never going to be all sunshine and rainbows and ease all the time.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: It is just not that it's not life.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's also not always going to be intense and overwhelming forever either.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: At least it doesn't have to be if we don't want it to be.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think that the more flexible we can become mentally and emotionally, the less friction we often experience.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because we stop forcing our reality into extremes or into black and white.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: We stop needing one experience to cancel out the other.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: We stop making one side good and the other side bad.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: And we simply begin allowing both truths to exist at the same time.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: So this week I invite you to explore both sides of the full moon within your own experience.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: The intensity, maybe the volatility, maybe the things that feel confronting or emotionally charged, and also the celebration, the culmination, the sweetness, the things in your life that are coming together.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'll tell you what, if you're here and you're listening to these episodes, I guarantee something, something in your life is coming together, even if it seems small.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: Both of these components are a part of the healing process.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: And they're both part of the cyclical process too.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's what's so beautiful about working with these cycles, is that it understands that we're not just one way.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: Life is not just one way all of the time.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: If you need some support navigating the fullness of this phase, I'm going to leave two somatic practice for practices for you over on Insight Time Room this week.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: One practice is to help tend to the intensity, the overwhelm, the a lotness of this phase.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the other is to help you welcome and honor the celebration and the culmination that you may also be experiencing right now, too.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'll leave both of those for you in the show notes, and I look forward to connecting with you next time.