Latest / Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul / The Moon & The Menstrual Cycle with Jamie Dillavou

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The Moon & The Menstrual Cycle with Jamie Dillavou · Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, my love.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to another episode on the Healing Her Story podcast.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: Before we begin today's episode, I wanted to take a moment to orient you to our focus for this cycle.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: If you listened to our weekly cycle sync episode that came out on Monday, then you know that we are currently moving through the new moon, or at least at the time that the episode on Monday aired.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: And as this episode is airing about four days after, we are beginning to move our way into a new cycle.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: And with that, here the invitation is to uh focus on a particular theme with each moon cycle.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: Now for the past two cycles, we have been working with Venus retrograde.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Venus is now direct, but we are still in the shadow period.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: And as we are writing the last little bit of the shadow period and beginning a new cycle, I wanted to bring in a specific focus on the menstrual cycle for this cycle.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: It is also Taurus season at the time that this episode is airing.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: And Taurus is all about slowing down, getting grounded, and connecting to the body.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: And as humans, whether you are a woman or a man or maybe somewhere in between, we do have this cyclical nature inherently built into by our biology, whether you're menstruating or not, we are all moving through the ebbs and flows of our energies and of our hormones.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: This is also happening in the natural world with the seasons and even with the time of day.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so with that, I believe learning how to work with our rhythms and feeling connected to our rhythms is a instrumental piece, an essential piece of feeling connected to the body.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: So as we begin this new focus with our focus being on the menstrual cycle specifically, I have a very special guest who you'll hear from in just a moment.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: And she's going to be starting us off with a new theme.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: And once you hear the episode, you will discover why.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I look forward to continuing this conversation in the next solo episode and also in the next cycle sync episode that will air on Monday.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: All right, here we go.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get into the episode.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: Hello everyone.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to this week's episode of the Healing Her Story podcast.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: My name is Reva Jean-Paul.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a trauma-informed somatic practitioner, coach for women, and host for your show.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: Today I am so excited and delighted and honored to be here with a very special woman who I had the privilege to go to cycle coach school with over the last year or so.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: We just graduated kind of at the end of this past year.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: We were just talking about time before we hit record.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: It seems to be moving very fast these days.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: But Jamie is such a wonderful woman who I've had the pleasure to come into connection with, and I've really enjoyed following her Instagram account and seeing all the delightful information and wisdom that she has to share.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I just really admire Jamie.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: I would think if if like where I would be in my life if I had had this level of understanding and wisdom that Jamie embodies at um her her life stage currently.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm really excited to have her on the show today.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Here's a little bit more about Jamie.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: Jamie Delaveau is a certified menstrual psycho coach and accredited international practitioner of holistic medicine.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Helping women heal their periods and hormonal imbalances naturally is her greatest passion.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: She loves guiding women to reconnect with their bodies, align their lives with their natural cycles, and find balance and empowerment instead of working against what their bodies are designed to do.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: Jamie, welcome to the Healing Her Story podcast.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you for having me.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_05: And thank you for that beautiful intro that like my heart started warming.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh, I love that.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I've been um receiving in feedback from the guests that I've had the chance to come um have on.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: And it's something that I think I will continue to do because everyone always is so touched by it.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just a really beautiful way to start.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, wonderful.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Jamie, we'd love to hear some info about your story and what led you to the path of menstrual cycle awareness.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: And we're also going to be talking a lot about the moon today.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: So curious how the moon entered into your life as well.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_05: Well, so my journey started back in what's start 2016.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_05: In 2016, I was 17 years old, and I had recently gone vegetarian for the animals.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_05: It wasn't for any health reason.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_05: I'm just an animal person.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_05: I watched some videos.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_05: If anyone else is vegetarian, you know the ones.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_05: And um, so I had a diet change.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_05: And within I'd say six months of this diet change, I started having um some pretty, I don't want to say severe and make it sound super over dramatic, but they were definitely I went through a rough patch because of the diet that I was on, let's say that.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_05: And um it impeded my daily life.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_05: I had terrible stomach issues.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_05: I was having terrible periods, just so nauseous and dizzy and lightheaded, and um, I started losing a little bit of hair.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_05: Nothing crazy, but they were just things that were um not my baseline.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_05: And I was unable to recognize because I was so young at the time that it was the diet, even though now I can look back.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_05: And if somebody was sitting across from me telling me this, I'd be like, okay, well, it's probably your diet, girl.
• 7:01
  unknown: Like.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_05: But yeah, so I went through a little rough patch there, but I started working with a naturopath, and she helped me uncover like far beyond the fact that I was vegetarian, just the things that that caused my body to kind of go through and some different like stomach issues that I picked up from that.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I started working with her, and she within six months' time.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_05: So this was kind of like a year, a year process.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_05: I started the diet, got very, very ill.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_05: And then six months after that, I went through this incredible um holistic healing with my naturopath.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_05: And I was just so amazed that nothing, like I didn't have to take any medication, like it was all just natural tinctures and like I was good to go.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_05: And it was all like lifestyle-based.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_05: And I was just amazed at that these natural remedies could heal a person in that way.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_05: And she picked up on things that I had been working with um my regular doctor at the time, a gastroenterologist, etc.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_05: And they were not picking up on the same exact things that she was.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_05: In fact, when I came back to my doctor and told them this is what my naturopath found, they were like, no, that's whack.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_05: Like, there's no way.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm like, okay, that's fine.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I'm better now, so I don't need to see you anymore.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and then after that, I was good to go.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_05: But I continued working with my naturopath because I just felt like she really took her time to listen to me.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_05: It wasn't like a quick in-and-out visit.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_05: And she really focused on the body as a whole.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_05: So after all that was taken care of, we started looking at my menstrual cycle because I can be prone to having painful periods.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_05: And so um, I was also having some hormonal breakouts at the time.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_05: And so I asked my naturopath if she thinks I should go on the birth control pill.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_05: And she immediately was like, no, there's no reason for you to go on that.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_05: And then she started asking me questions about my own menstrual cycle, like as a whole, like questions like, um, are you ovulating?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_05: Do you know when you ovulate?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_05: These questions that you don't really think about, or a lot of women don't think about until they're ready to have a baby, and they're like, Why can't I have a baby?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_05: And it's because they're not like they're not aware of their fertile window.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_05: And so I was 19 years old at this point, and I was like, wait, what is all this?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_05: And I went home from that visit and I started going down like the rabbit hole of the menstrual cycle, and I just wanted to know everything about and I was like, if I don't know this, and I was talking to my friends and I was like, Do you know this?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_05: And they were like, What?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_05: All of this is insane.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, so no one knows this stuff?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_05: Like, what?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_05: And that's just kind of where it all began.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_05: And then I started um my Instagram account in, I want to say 2019, 2020, and I just started talking about like femininity and cycles and just all this cool stuff that I was learning, but I couldn't find a degree or a certification that summed up what I felt was so true inside and what I wanted to share with the world until I found cycle coach school.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, this is the missing piece.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_05: Like, this is what I've been searching for, but couldn't find.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_05: And so that was a cycle coach school.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I'll think about that for the rest of my life.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_05: That was such a beautiful, transformative time that just reinstilled so many truths that I feel like you and I already know as women, but we don't necessarily have the verbiage to speak aloud.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_05: And yeah, that's my story.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_05: That's why we're here today.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for sharing that story.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's really lovely to hear about the support that you were able to find at such a really pivotal time in your early um, yeah, your early adult life where you were starting to menstruate and have all these questions and inclinations.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I absolutely loved how you followed your curiosity and you really stayed true to what felt most right for you, which um can be really hard to do, especially in the Western um medical industry, if you will.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: So kudos to you, really celebrating that.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_05: And then as far as the moon goes, as I was going down my rabbit hole.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_05: Um I think I came across like an article maybe talking about how similar um the moon cycle is to the menstrual cycle.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, wow, I've never noticed that, but that kind of makes sense.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_05: And um, yeah, I just that's just another rabbit hole that I went down.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm not like a professional, like by any means.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know everything about it, but like I know enough to be like, wow, that's freaking cool.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so cool.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know a lot.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it's interesting.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like mine was kind of flip-flopped.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like I I took interest and had curiosity towards the moon at first.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it was after I'd started hula hooping, which interesting interestingly enough, like hula hooping is a circle, and when you're hula hooping, it's a cycle.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, when I look back, I'm like, oh wow, like it's pretty wild how it all kind of fed into each other.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: But around that time, um, you know, I had started meditating and, you know, doing other things, exploring consciousness and psychedelics and things.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: But I started meditating with the moon and I found these meditations on YouTube.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: This woman, I think she still posts the meditations every new moon and full moon.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what I would do.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: I would take a bath and I would meditate on the new moon and the full moon.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I didn't really know like why or like what what, you know, I just was like, okay, this is just what I'm gonna do every new moon and full moon.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: And um, anyway, it kind of snowballed.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: And then I started looking at the menstrual cycle.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: So it's funny to hear how it's kind of flipped for you.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_05: Well, so looking back, are you able to remember if during any of those meditations you were bleeding, whether it be full or new?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_05: Like you remember.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't know because I had hormonal birth control in for a very long time.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I do know that after some time of doing that, I did feel this intuitive nudge to remove my hormonal birth control.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I can't remember if I was bleeding or not.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: I I know I didn't bleed um very regularly.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I also I wasn't tracking it at that time in my life at all.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, yeah, I wish I remembered more, paid more attention.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_05: Like if it wasn't in your awareness at the time, like there were so many things.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, how did I not like make that connection?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, well, it wasn't even in your awareness yet that that was even a thing.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_05: So that totally makes sense.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_05: But wow, it's pretty cool stuff.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: It is, yes, it's very cool stuff, and I think that's a really lovely segue into the next question that I'd love to ask you.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really curious about this connection between the moon and our menstrual cycle, and it's it's one that I've explored fairly deeply within myself, and I know you have as well.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: But if someone has no idea, say they are where we were however many years ago, how would you explain this connection to the menstrual cycle and the moon?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so comparing the two, they have a lot of similarities for starters.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_05: Um, both the menstrual cycle and the moon cycle are on average around 29 days.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_05: I believe the moon cycle is like 29 and a half days, and the menstrual cycle is like 29.3 or like something like that.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_05: 29 days, we'll say.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and then within both of those cycles, there are four different phases that occur.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_05: So if we're looking at the menstrual cycle, we have menstruation, the follicular phase, the ovulatory phase, the luteal phase.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_05: For the moon, we have the new moon, the waxing moon, the full moon.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_05: Wait, did I say full moon already?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_05: New moon, waxing moon, full moon, waning moon.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_05: And then um the moon cycles control our seasons to a certain extent.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_05: And then, as we know, uh the menstrual cycle, each phase is correlated with spring, summer, winter, autumn.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_05: So, yeah, that's just kind of like a basic overview, but it's just amazing.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I remember hearing that information the first time and being like, wow, like our bodies are so amazing, and like women are so connected to nature, like beyond what we even know.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_05: And it's just such a beautiful thing.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I'll never be able to look at the moon the same.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_05: Like, just as the moon is able to pull the tides, the ocean tides, the moon is also like, in a way, in control of like our body and moving our own tide, and it's just a beautiful thing.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree, yeah.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: Very beautiful and very powerful and um very like the kind of powerful that is very subtle.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's not necessarily like in your face, yelling at you, screaming at you.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of just yeah, knowingly doing its thing in the background.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and like I don't know, are are you familiar familiar with um tarot cards?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_05: I am, yeah.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_05: Well, it's like the moon card and the tarot is like the mystery, it's like what's behind the moon there, and like that just kind of goes along with what you just said.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_05: Just like it's it's subtle, but like you can feel something's there before you see it.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_05: Um also the word menstruation can be derived from two different languages.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_05: So in Latin, I might really butcher this, so I apologize.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_05: But I believe the word is menses, and that means oh my gosh, is that calendar?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_05: No, no, no, cycle.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_05: Wait, I wrote this down.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_05: I wrote this down because I knew I was gonna forget.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_05: I knew I was gonna forget.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, so the Latin word mensis means month, and then the Greek meanie, M-E-N-E, means moon.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_05: So the word menstruation itself is super connected to cyclical nature and the moon through our root languages, which is so cool.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: So interesting.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: It makes me really curious to know, and this may not be an answer that you have, like when that connection was first acknowledged or maybe established, yeah.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: Thinking in like indigenous and ancient cultures, do you have any any inclination to like when or how that might be maybe came into knowing?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I don't know when exactly it began, but I do know that underneath the new moon, women used to be very, very in tune and connected with each other's cycles because we used to live in super tight communities, and like when you're picking up on each other's pheromones, like naturally you all just sink up.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_05: Like if you spend too much time with one friend, you're gonna sink up.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_05: And it's not like it's not a coincidence, it's you're picking up on each other's pheromones, and women used to it used to benefit women to spend that time together.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_05: Um nature's so cool like that.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_05: And so underneath the new moon, which is the most um traditional cycle to menstruate with, women, the community of women used to bleed in the red tents, which are basically just I'm not really sure how it looks across um all cultures, but generically it would be like a hut or like a tent where women would go in during at least the first three days of their bleed under the new moon, and they used to just sit and bleed on hay, and they didn't have to worry about taking care of the kids or cooking or doing any sort of labor.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_05: And it was so respected by everyone.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_05: That's the thing.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_05: It was respected by men, children, elders.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_05: Like it was just a thing that the woman needed to go take care of themselves.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_05: And if they had babies that needed mom, they would take their babies with them and they would just sit together and share stories and sing and bleed and eat food.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_05: And um, yeah, I wish we had that now.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_05: I do.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but it's so hard to say when it dates back because and it's so hard to even tell who even like came up with this because I feel like when things are so natural to us as human beings, it's like who do we even say created this or started this ritual?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_05: Um, because it could have been many different types of communities that were doing this.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but definitely for sure, um Native Americans for sure were doing this.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_05: There are cultures in Africa that still do this um today.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_05: But yeah.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_05: Wow, I feel like when I'm saying that, I feel like in my head, I'm like brought back in time, just like imagining myself like in one of those tents, fruit with all of these women.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: I was there with you.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: I was like kind of seeing it in my mind's eye as well, and kind of having this almost kind of um response in my body, this very visceral kind of remembering of the way things were and the way things are, and we've just kind of gotten away from that.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_05: Like I feel like this for me, so I'm on cycle day one right now.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_05: Like, even this for me is like red tent energy, just like sitting across.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_05: Across from another woman, even though it's through a screen and just sharing stories and actively listening to each other and not having interruptions from the outside world.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_05: Like this itself is red tent energy.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_05: Not modern day.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: Love that.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: And um, we'll dive a little bit more into the red tent and how listeners can maybe create their own red tent experience as we get a little bit further in the episode.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: But um, I'm curious how we can use the phases of the moon to better understand our own hormonal shifts because you've mentioned these different phases and how the energy waxes and wanes.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_05: That like watch your neighbor, watch the dog, it's a full moon.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, but that's like just a phase in time.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_05: Um every single moon phase has kind of its own little zhuzh.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_05: Like the new moon is all about like new beginnings and fresh starts.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_05: But what needs to happen before a fresh start is the shedding of the old.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_05: And if we look at the menstrual cycle, in order to start or really kickstart a new cycle and birth a new life, a new egg, we have to shed what was not used the previous cycle to really get in there.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_05: And women have crazy parts of their cycle, let's be real.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_05: Like the blue phase is it's a time, it's a time for everybody.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_05: And like the luteal phase is very like full moon energy, even though like if we align each phase with the cycle of the moon, it's like not really correlated for the new moon cycles and the full moon cycles.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_05: But like the luteal phase is very like it would be correlated with the waning moon, but it's very full moon energy of like you're a little bit crazy, like we're a little bit off.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_05: Like we kind of want to yell at people, like we shouldn't be in public, like lock me behind closed doors, you don't want to see me out.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_05: Um but yeah, I feel like that's the best way to describe it is like everyone can relate to that full moon craziness, and it's like women have different types in their cycle, it's like a little bit, but then like new moons, like if even if we look at like astrology, um new moons, that's the perfect time to especially with a new moon Aries, because which just happened two days ago, I want to say it's like the start of the zodiac year is beginning, fresh starts, but it's like we need to purge everything that happened previously before we can really kickstart, which is why this new moon was a little bit.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_05: I don't want to speak for everyone in the world, but it was a little bit like intense because we can feel that old energy just like really leaving us and opening up all these new possibilities.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_05: And that's also kind of like the start of a menstrual cycle.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_05: We have to, even though it's the start of a new cycle, cycle day one, you're bleeding, we have to shed all of that stuff out before we get into things and imagine what's to come.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's really beautiful, and I think an important piece about releasing the old to create space for the new.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: Because if we're trying to start new things or initiate new ideas or projects when our environment, whether it be internally or externally, is is cluttered and full of things that aren't working or aren't serving, it's gonna be really hard for those new um, yeah, for those new things to to bloom.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's a beautiful cycle that it sounds like we can really um learn to work with within ourselves.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love that.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, when I was watching your guest workshop in psycho coach school, you were sharing some really juicy bits that I had been scouring the internet to find information on for a long time.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so when I saw you or heard you uh sharing these, I was like, oh, those are so good.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: I I really want her to share that on the podcast.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: So you've already kind of mentioned that bleeding with the new moon is sort of the like, you know, stereotypical um time to bleed.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: And given that we live in the modern world that we live in now, many of us are not bleeding with the new moon.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: And this doesn't mean that anything's wrong with you or that it's anything you need to fix, but how our bleed lines up with the moon can give us really um really keen insight as to where our energy is is taking us.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: So could you speak to what it means to bleed with the new moon versus the waxy moon versus the full moon and the waning moon?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_05: So I think first to speak to, we're obviously not aligned with the traditional lunar cycle as we once were.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_05: And um a big part of that is because all of this artificial light.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_05: The reason why women used to bleed with the new moon is because under the full moon they would ovulate, and ovulation was um regulated by the light of the full moon.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_05: So because now we have all of this artificial light, it kind of like not messed us up, I don't want to say that, but um, not all of us bleed with the new moon anymore.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_05: And sometimes we do, and sometimes we don't, um, it just depends.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_05: So we'll start with the traditional um lunar cycle, the new moon, and that is considered a white moon cycle.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_05: The most traditional, it's associated with motherhood, and um, instead of our energy being out in the world, really coming back in home to ourselves, it's a time of self-creation.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_05: And even if you do not want to have children or you're not in the space yet to do so, it's still a super potent time to really like dive in and let your intuition kind of tell you what it wants to create.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_05: Um, it's associated with fertility, um, all that good stuff.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_05: The full moon is referred to as a red moon cycle, and this one's a little bit like darker.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_05: If you're from the United States, a little, it's very like Salem energy.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_05: It's associated with heal healers and witches and high priestesses, and it's a very um, it's nurturing in a different way, it's nurturing in a very outward way.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_05: So instead of focusing on um yourself per se, we're focused on healing others and kind of gaining the insight on how we can nurture and nourish those around us to um heal our communities and we can gain beautiful insight into um how to use old ancestral, speaking mod, like from modern day, we can use the energy to learn about our ancestral roots and take that and put our own twist on it in a way that we can kind of put out to modern day society.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_05: Like it's a very magical, really the only energy I can describe it as is very like that Salem, like black cat, just magic energy, um, very transformative.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_05: And then the waxing moon, which comes after the new moon, if we bleed with the waxing moon, that is called the uh pink moon cycle.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_05: The pink moon cycle is associated with new hope and new beginnings, but not in the same way the new moon would be.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_05: It's kind of like the baby steps to that.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_05: Um so kind of like just the beginning ideas of that, and then the waning moon is the purple moon cycle, and that is the transition and all the stuff that happens like leading up to like the big epiphany of okay, I can't have this in my life anymore.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_05: It's very transitional energy.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_05: Um and yeah, that's important.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you covered them all, and um, yeah, really wonderful information to just use and percolate with as our own cycle begins to change and shift with uh the different moon phases, and as we start to notice them shifting and changing with the moon phases.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: I know I used to bleed with the new moon um a lot.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then in more recent years, I haven't been bleeding with the new moon at all.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: And so really um I've danced between the waxing and the full and the waning and back around.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually been a while since I've been synced up with the new moon.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: So as I'm thinking about having children soon-ish, uh, not too soon, I'm like, I'm kind of like now kind of on the lookout for that shift to bleeding with the new moon.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_05: That's awesome.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_05: So when we dance back and forth between bleeding with different cycles, we call that wise woman's cycle.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_05: For every few months we're bleeding with a different phase of the lunar cycle.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_05: And it's not because we're not regular, it's just we're dynamic as woman and we're constantly needing to tap into different energies um to create our life.
• 32:28
  unknown: Yeah.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_05: So that resonates with me.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: Wonderful.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, very fun.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, I'm excited for listeners to receive all of that because I can think of at least five girlfriends on one hand where um, you know, we've had conversations of like, what does it mean?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_02: Some happiness information's out there.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: How can someone begin tracking their cycle with the moon and what insights might they gain from this practice?
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_05: So I just think the easiest way is cycle day one.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_05: Just look up where the moon is in the sky and just keep track.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_05: Like sometimes I feel like when we're trying to start new routines or rituals, we feel like it needs to be this super like big profound thing.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_05: When I feel like really the big profound things come from the little things, such as just writing down what phase the moon is, cycle day one, and then just continuing to look, okay, I'm in my ovulatory phase now.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_05: Um, where's the moon at?
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_05: And just beginning to see the correlation and going from there.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_05: So it's not such a daunting thing to add in to our cycle tracking, but um, it can definitely be super interesting and unlock a new level of menstrual cycle awareness.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_05: Um I had something there.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_05: I feel like sometimes how women get into menstrual cycle awareness is like two things on two very different um spectrums.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_05: It's either the physical aspect where women are going through a lot of like physical ailments, or their period is really getting in the way.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and so then they start to research like the biology and the science behind it.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_05: Or on the other realm, they see something about like a one of the reasons why if you look on my Instagram, you'll see that like my content is very much a mixture of like, yes, the biology, because that's that is important, but also the spirituality, because sometimes it's the spirituality that can open other women's eyes to see how special the experience of being a woman actually is because there's so much negative talk around periods, like period culture is like ass, honestly.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_05: Like people hate periods, yeah, yeah.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_05: There's so much negativity surrounding it, and like I feel like sometimes women just need to like see, like, oh wow, that's kind of neat that my period lines up with the moon in some way, or just see like that the period is so much more than just the physical, but it's this very spiritual um experience, and just talking about things like this right now, like how we're so connected to the moon, is like it's cool.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_05: It like helps you like cope with the negative parts of being a woman a little bit more because it is so profound and like okay, like this is for a reason, this has a purpose, and we're so powerful, so yeah, very powerful.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's it's funny.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: I can think of um friends from kind of previous versions of my life where you know I might mention, oh, I'm about to start my period, and they're just like, oh man, like that sucks.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, it's not that bad.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's really something that I actually kind of enjoy, and that is special to me.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I love what you said about it not just being about the biology, because there is a significant biological event that is happening during menstruation, and there is also this sort of spiritual peace, which sounds like could be an entryway for people who maybe um aren't feeling as moved by the science or the biology behind it, but maybe they can have a curiosity within them that gets sparked when they think about like how their period lines up with the moon.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_02: Wonderful.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let's get back to the red tents because this is something you know I hold this vision for um for my practice and you know, maybe somewhere down the road, just for the world in general, of kind of bringing back the red tents and having a safe place where women can go during this time to receive nourishment and care.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: But for someone who's not familiar with the red tent, um, could you explain a little bit more about what were the red tents and how women of ancient cultures honored their bleeding time?
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, absolutely.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_05: So um red tent is just a general term for like a little hut woman would go to or a home or an actual tent um during their bleed.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_05: And women would gather together because um anciently women tended to be on the same menstrual cycle.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_05: So they would all gather in the red tent, typically under the new moon, and they would sit like nowadays we have like pads, tampons, period underwear, etc.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_05: But they would just free bleed on um stacks of hay, and they would just sit and gather and um get into really deep conversations, really beautiful, intimate conversations that I feel like women lack now.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_05: Like women really lack intimacy with other women, like those really dark conversations.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_05: Not when I say dark, I guess I don't mean like negative or scary, but those really like mysterious, intuitive conversations, those non-judgmental conversations would just have those with each other and hash it out and just be women together.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_05: And um they would eat and they wouldn't have to worry about taking care of anybody but themselves.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_05: And yeah, and it was just so that's the thing that's so profound to me is how widely accepted it was for women to just take care of themselves.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_05: We lack that so much now, and I'm not sure where it went wrong, but ever like it just mind blows me that like everyone just had this awareness, like they just need to be left alone.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_05: Like we do serve them and let them be because these women are so special and beautiful and provide so much for our community that we need to let them take care of themselves and rejuvenate.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_05: Like everyone had this understanding, and um yeah, it's just a beautiful thing.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_05: I read um The Red Tent by I don't know how to pronounce her last name.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_05: Her first name's Anita.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_05: Last name starts with a D.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_05: Don't know how to pronounce it.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_05: Diamate, maybe.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: I know which book you're talking about.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_05: You know the book I'm talking about.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not a huge um fictional book person, but I I could not put this book down.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_05: Like it was fictional, but it was based off of like true like biblical events and true things that they would do together.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_05: And it was just basically about the stories behind the red tent, like the things that would happen behind the red tent, what they would talk about and what that looked like.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_05: And um that it's one of those books that, and I'm not a book person, so this says a lot.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_05: I have to make that note.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_05: I would read that again and again and again and again.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_05: It was like scrumptious, it was so good.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I think because it just connected with me so much and what I crave to have, and like the lifestyle I crave to have, that I just I loved it, I ate it up.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_05: But good book, good book, but yeah, red tent, women just took care of themselves and bled out.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, wonderful.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love what you said about the whole community really honoring this time, knowing that the woman needed to go and and take care of herself.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_02: And we've come so far away from that as a society.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: I know many women who, you know, around their bleeding time, they kind of just suck it up and, you know, take whatever they need to take just to kind of get through the day or work in the same way that they would, say, when they were in, you know, an ovatory time or even an inner springtime or even an inner fall time, just a time where there is a bit more energy.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, it kind of breaks my heart sometimes to to see this in our world today.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_02: And it's something that I really try to honor for myself.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I try to tell people too, even my friends who maybe aren't as um connected with their cycle or as interested in learning about this.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_02: I will always um tell them when I'm getting ready to start my period or when I'm on my period.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um I do it with my family.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_02: I went to a concert last week and um not last week, it was a couple weeks ago, and I have these kind of special things I wear during my bleeding time, which have really adapted through psycho coach school.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_02: And someone, a man, actually asked me about it, and I was very just casual and open.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Oh, wait, this is something I wear to honor my period.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm on my period right now.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_02: And he was, I was in a a place where um it's a town called Nevada City where I live here in um Northern California, and it's a pretty um, how do I say, just a very diverse and different sort of place to live.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you got the mountains and you've got people living a much slower life out there, more connected to the earth.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so um it was it was welcomed and I feel like it was received.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_05: It's funny, like we're talking about how you said that to a man.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_05: It's like men don't mind hearing about periods.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I will have casual period talk with men, they don't care, they're actually quite curious about it, and not in like a weird way, but it's because we've for so long, I don't know what it is, but we just don't.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_05: It's like when we start a period, we feel like it has to be like this secret.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know how it was for you, but I feel like for me, I was like, I didn't even want my own dad to know.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_05: And I don't know why I felt that way.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_05: Like it felt like everyone like would just look at me differently all of a sudden, I was no longer a little girl, and then I'd be looked at in a certain type of way, which isn't true at all, by the way.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_05: It's not true.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_05: But um, and then as I've like grown up and just gotten more confident, and just that's what we do.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_05: We talk about menstrual cycles.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_05: So for us, it's like literally everyday conversation, like it's pretty much always on our mind.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_05: Just like talking about it casually with men, they do not care.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_05: They literally don't, they have questions about it.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_05: I love it.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, maybe one day we can um get back to a world where people really support.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Women taking care of themselves during this time.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_05: For sure.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_02: And we've spoken to this a little bit, but I'm curious if you have any thoughts as to why these practices were lost and how our patriarchal world has disconnected us from this wisdom and from this rhythm.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, I feel like partly everything's so expensive nowadays.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_05: It's like you can't even just rely on one person in your family to income and support everyone.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_05: It's like everyone needs to be working.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm not saying I have no problem.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_05: Like working's great.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_05: I think women have always worked.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_05: We just didn't used to call it work.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_05: Like, even men, men have always worked too.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_05: Way back when we didn't call that working.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_05: We just called it, oh, like dad's out on the farm, like doing this, and like mom's in the home cooking or moms picking herbs or stuff like that.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_05: We didn't used to call any of these things jobs.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_05: Now we call them jobs.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_05: So I'll just also call them jobs.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_05: But yeah, everything's just so damn expensive now.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_05: Like we can't like I just feel like maybe we've like built and produced far much more than the average community is able to handle.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I don't know.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_05: I I still am searching for that answer.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_05: I know um back in oh my god, I forget what war it was.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not a huge history buff.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_05: It might have been World War II, one of the huge wars.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_05: Don't quote me on this, but one of the huge wars when like basically all men in the United States um were called into the armed forces and they had to go.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_05: And it was woman that because now like the world is so like modern and stuff, it was really up to women to step up and take care of the infrastructure while our men were away fighting for our country and other countries.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_05: And um I don't know, maybe woman liked it.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe woman liked it, or maybe woman continued like building things so big in a way where like, well, now we need a man woman to like be in it.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_05: We just need as many hands as we can get.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_05: Like I think sometimes things start from a good heart and a good place, but then over time they can get misconstrued and um just grow into something that it wasn't originally.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_05: But I do know, like historically and factually, that the reason why there was a big, huge influx in woman in the workforce was because we needed woman because our mass were away serving.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_05: Um so it's a little history 10 bet.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for bringing that in.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_05: I'll be on the years because I'm not yeah, it's funny.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_02: I can I'm not may maybe World War II, but yeah, definitely don't quote us on that.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's reminding me of this movie.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think it's called the 58th Battalion or something like that.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_02: Carrie Washington is in it, and it um it's depicted during that time.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_02: And while all of the men are away at war, this um this group of women have to really step up.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_02: They're in the armed forces to get a particular job done.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it was the it was the male situation.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_02: There were all these letters that needed to get sent to all these soldiers, and all these um letters that were coming from the soldiers going to their families that weren't making it to their families, and these women had to really step up to to bring order and structure to the situation.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I really appreciate you bringing that piece in.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_02: I had never thought about that before.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_05: I would like to watch that.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_05: That's the those are the types of movies.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's really good.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_05: People are always recommending me like shows and like TVs, like TV shows like Game of Thrones and stuff like that.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, that's not what I like watching.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_05: I like watching just like real, like maybe this is a fictional story, but this is based on like true stuff.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_05: I would definitely watch that.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_05: You're gonna have to send me that.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'll make a little note here, I'll send it to you.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's really good.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe I'll put it in the um the show notes too, because it's worth watching and it it does give a a really um just interesting perspective into the working women and how um yeah, how things, how that's changed and influenced, influenced us over the years.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm sure.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, um, let's see here.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_02: We're slowly making our way towards um the end of the episode today, but let's um wrap up this discussion on the red tent.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm curious if women listening, or even men or um humans listening are interested in tapping into this red tent energy.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_02: How might they be able to do that in the modern day that we live in now?
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_05: So for starters, kind of like what we're talking about a little bit a few minutes ago, having open conversations with people about where you're at in your cycle, um and get people comfortable and used to what that means.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_05: Because we can tell someone, like, oh, I'm PMSing or I'm in my luvial phase, like, okay, well, what does that mean?
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_05: Like, we know that stereotypically that means we are a little bit more irritable, maybe a little bit more hungry, like a little bit more snippy and sensitive.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_05: But like the deep, like going deeper into that, what does that actually mean though?
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_05: To me, that means okay, I might need a little more space during this time because I don't want anyone to need anything from me.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm feeling sensitive towards people.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_05: So instead of shaming myself for feeling sensitive towards people or being root, literally like rude or mean to people that I love, I'm gonna take that as a cue to be one step ahead and um detach a little bit and need a little bit more time to myself and communicating what it really means to other people.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_05: Um I think especially like to kind of like recreate that red tent vibe modern day, it does really come down to conversations with having conversations with other women.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_05: Like my best friend, she said this to me like maybe a month or two ago.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_05: She was like, When I tell my other friends I'm on my period, they don't get what I mean.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_05: They're just like, Oh yeah, because like they're on hormonal birth control, so yeah, the experience they have with their cycle is very different than like a true bleed.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_05: And she was like, But when I tell you I have like I'm bleeding, like you know exactly what I mean, you know exactly what I'm feeling, you know what I need, you know that like plans might need to be canceled.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_05: Like, and that's the kind of like intimacy, I guess.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_05: I I don't really like that using that word towards like woman because it's kind of weird, but it's the only word I can think of just that kind of like deeper connection with other women, like our menstrual cycles really are that one unspoken thing that connect to all of us, and um talking about it is important, and um not being afraid or feel shame for talking about it.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_05: Um but I feel like yeah, like but in order, the thing is in order to communicate your needs to other people, you need to know what you're feeling yourself.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_05: Like you can't communicate, you can't even like process yourself.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_05: So that's why tracking your cycle is so important every single day, just writing down a few words or a few symptoms that you're feeling so that like you can kind of get ahead of the game and like recognize these patterns and then make a loose game plan.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_05: And then then from there you can communicate that to the people that surround you every single day.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, beautiful.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_02: I love what you said about um not just telling people but giving them some insight as to what that experience means for you.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_02: Because I can think of plenty of times where I've you know just shared, you know, oh I'm I'm gonna be on my period that day.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_02: And that's all I've said.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_02: But maybe if I paired that with, oh, I'm on my period that day, and I generally am lower energy and prefer not to socialize.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_02: That way they kind of have that understanding.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then this piece about you said tracking, so that you can start to kind of plan a little bit, which I know has been so helpful for me in my journey.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_02: And as I've become really attuned to my cycle, I do find myself um very willingly planning ahead to ensure that I have that time set aside for myself.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_02: And could you speak to um kind of like the nourishment and the regenerating energy that comes when we allow ourselves to kind of slip into our red tent, even if it is a sort of modern day version of it, especially in this world that is so fast paced, where um there's this really big emphasis on productivity and doing, and I know that was something I really struggled with when I was beginning to work with my menstrual cycle was you know, I would I taught fitness classes at the time, and if I had my period, I would like take some ibuprofen and like drink an energy drink and like may have a little CBD, and I would go teach my fitness classes.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_02: So just curious if you could speak to that a little bit.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_02: I can see your face right now.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_02: You're like, that's your face was like, oh my god, that sounds terrible.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_02: That was pretty terrible.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't know.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_05: Because I'm having flashbacks because I was um a competitive dancer.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_05: I was just freaking shocked when I got when I got my period.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_05: I had been a competitive dancer before that.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_05: I get my period, I'm still a competitive dancer, but everything inside me changed.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, there's this one specific memory I remember of I was in the eighth grade, so around like 13, 14 years old.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_05: And it was my longest night of dance classes of the week.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_05: And I just remember I had like a 15-minute break to like eat something, but all I wanted to do, I just sprawled out belly down on the floor.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, this is awful.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_05: Take me home.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_05: And like I was 13, so I wasn't thinking like, okay, I need to pack advil today.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_05: So I texted my dad, I was like, Daddy, can you please pick me up?
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_05: And then he came down, pick me up, which was wonderful.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_05: But then the like repercussions of me leaving dance class early was like I was shamed for it.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, really, yeah.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_05: My dance teacher was like, I understand that you weren't feeling well, but you have a team that you need to show up for, and everyone else experiences this too, and they show up, so you need to as well.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_05: And so I was like, wow, okay.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_05: So this is partly why I think it's so important to be to talk to your female friends about what you're feeling.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_05: Because from that um conversation I had with my dance teacher, I was like, okay, well, maybe I'm the only person that has this experience with my peering because I don't understand how they're all able to like game on, like do what they need to do, business as usual, and I can't.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_05: So it made me feel like I was the only one that felt that way.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_05: And then after that, I just didn't even talk about my period with anyone or like anything.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, okay.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_05: So that's why I was like, oh my god, flashback.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_05: Um nourishing yourself during your period will reflect throughout the rest of your cycle.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_05: So at least I've taken note in my own cycle.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_05: If I have a cycle, this is probably gonna be one of those cycles that did not plan at all.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_05: So wish me luck.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_05: Um if I'm like jam-packed, just carrying on as usual, yeah, it reflects throughout the rest of my cycle.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_05: I'll have PMS symptoms at ovulation when if I took care of myself, I would feel like thriving, friendly, flirty, charming, like performative.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_05: But because some cycles, that's not necessarily always feasible.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_05: You can experience, at least I can experience PMS symptoms around ovulation.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_05: But that for me, I have found is a direct reflection of how I'm taking care of myself during my period when my body is the most vulnerable because hormones are at their absolute lowest.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_05: So and the thing is, like, you don't need to like quit your job or like take a whole entire week off in order to nourish yourself properly.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_05: It's just about taking note of like what you can and what you can't control.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_05: So if you work full-time, like yes, go to go to work, or like if you really need a day off, like take it, like just tell them you're sick.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_05: But um, you can't control that.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_05: But what you can control is okay, well, I was supposed to go get dinner with a friend tonight as well, but like, oh my god, that's just gonna drag my day on.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_05: And I know I need an extra hour of sleep during my menstrual phase.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_05: So maybe not even necessarily cancel, but maybe like, can we just do dinner at home, just something more low key and just kind of work with it in that way?
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_05: And then I'm a big like supplement food um nourishment type of person.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_05: So during menstruation, um, omega-3s are amazing, especially if you experience cramping.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_05: Like hereditarily, like all the women in my family have cramps.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_05: And if I'm not taking care of myself properly, they turn on those cramps.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_05: But omega-3s, um, they're anti-inflammatory and it really, really does help with cramping, um, and just like also nourishing your hair and like your skin, your nails.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_05: But um, yeah, supplementation.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_05: Um, if you're not a big vitamin supplement person, like maybe eating fish, like not fancy fish, even just like a can of tuna fish, you know, that was kind of a bar, not a fish.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_05: That was good.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_05: Um but just even nourishing yourself through food and just being more intentional.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_05: It doesn't necessarily have to be a quit your job, hibernate time, but just being kind of more aware of your needs and like, okay, well, I'm not gonna watch a TV show today, I'm gonna go to bed early, like little things like that, you know?
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, help along with it.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, no, I love that answer.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's like those little small things can make a big difference.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: Wonderful invitations for our listeners today.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_02: Well, as we're slowly making our way towards um the end of the episode, I always start to um always like to leave listeners with some sort of practical things, which we've already started to speak to a little bit.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm curious, um, what are some other simple ways that women can honor their menstrual cycle, even if they have um a busy life?
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_02: Are there any other examples you can offer us?
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, um I I I I guess I more think of like the the tangible things.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_05: Uh so wearing comfier clothes, like just stretchier pants, or like in the summer, like wearing like a skirt or a dress to really just like free yourself, free your womb from any sense of constriction.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_05: Um if you are a working woman, you don't work from home and you can't have like a heating pad with you or take a bath, still focusing on like heat.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_05: Like I just recommended this the other day to a client, actually.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_05: Um, the brand Rail, um, it's a menstrual um a sanitary pad company, but they make these heating patches that are the perfect size to fit over your room and your back.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_05: And so I always have those in my car with me, in my bathroom to take with me.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_05: And they really do um provide a decent amount of heat to like make you feel like comforted.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_05: And then like my favorite thing is to just take a second to just like press on it, and then it like gets the heat really in there.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_05: And you just take a second to breathe and just reminds you like we're good, we're good here.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_05: We're living.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but just little ways of like nourishing yourself, making sure that you're hydrated, like especially when you're menstruating with all the blood loss, um, the perfect time to really take into consideration electrolytes, like even just like a pinch of salt in your water.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but we really need those extra minerals and nutrients to keep us not just cleansed, but hydrated.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_05: What else?
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_05: Keeping your feet warm, especially if you're in a colder climate, um keeping your feet warm um can help with cramping.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_05: I never like to use the word prevent.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_05: I think that it's normal to have some cramping because now the uterus is contrived.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_05: So we can't prevent that from happening, but we can uh make ourselves more comfortable and I guess prevent the severity of what it could be not take care of ourselves.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_05: But everything to me just comes down to intention, really, like when we are experiencing things like cramps, fatigue, um backaches, headaches, especially during menstruation or late luteal, it really is a call to pay attention to your body and pay attention to your inner world.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_05: Like I find the cycles where I can really just pay attention to my needs and not have so many outside distractions.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_05: I don't get as many symptoms because my body doesn't need to scream to get my attention to take care of myself.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I guess my number one self-care tip outside of everything is just being intentional and checking in with your body and not letting your body get to a point where it is screaming before you help it.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, it's like plugging in our phone to charge before it dies.
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_02: Which we all do.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_04: Let's do it for ourselves.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm curious for for those who see the period as an inconvenience.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_02: How can we begin to shift our mindset to seeing this as a time for renewal and maybe even um like a powerful time where we can really cultivate our our feminine powers of creating life, literally?
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_05: So I find a good place to start for people like that that aren't necessarily tapped into like the femininity and like sacred nature of it.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_05: Not going into the spiritual realm first, but going to like the physical factual stuff, like laying out to somebody what a hormonal chart looks like and what like physically and biologically is actually happening and why this makes sense.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_05: Um, so like during your period, all of your hormones are at the lowest they can be.
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_05: Cycle day one, two, three, estrogen doesn't start rising till cycle day four a little bit, then five, and then we just go up from there and skyrocket.
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_05: But really taking into consideration like the facts of like that, well, this is what your body is doing right now.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_05: We there's nothing we can do to change that.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_05: That's just something that's happening.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_05: And then cycle tracking, it seems so simple, but it's such a powerful tool to recognize your own patterns.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_05: I feel like the reason why it's seen as such an inconvenience is because we're not awakened to the pattern of it.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_05: And like once we get used to our own pattern and see our own pattern, we can better prepare for it.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_05: So it's not really an inconvenience, it just is what it is, and we knew it was coming all along.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_05: We just didn't prepare for it.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_05: Tough love.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_05: But and then from there, like once you understand the kind of like physically, biologically, biologically what's happening, then we can kind of look into the more like spiritual stuff and like dip people's toes into that.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_05: But cycle tracking, it's just such a powerful tool.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_05: Every single day, even if you don't know what cycle day you're on, just take like two months and write down the date and how you feel every single day, and then look back after two months and see if there's any similarities.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_05: And then, like, and then if you obviously know what cycle day you're on, write that down too.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_05: But um it's not such an inconvenience once you see how cyclical it is, you know, and you plan a little bit more for it and around it, and just realize how cool it is that our bodies are doing this, and we don't even have we just sit back, and our body just naturally wants to create.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_05: Like that's so cool.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_05: It is so cool.
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_02: I love this piece you said about um it's only an inconvenience because we haven't prepared for it.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, top love, give it too long.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_02: Really good, yeah, because these rhythms and cycles are happening all of the time, and it's really up to us to notice them.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_02: And when we notice them, we can begin to work with them, and then when we work with them, like you said, it's just it is what it is, it's not an inconvenience anymore.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, really beautifully said.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, is there anything else that you would hope listeners are taking away from today's conversation?
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_05: I guess just how like menstrual cycles can be fun.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_05: Like once you start to access all the different like superpowers each phase has to offer, and like you realize how cool and like badass you are because like we're we are so dynamic and experience so many different versions of ourselves each month.
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_05: Like it's really just a divine, profound thing.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_05: Um yeah, I think if you can take away anything from it, it's that track your cycle.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_05: It's not an inconvenience if you plan for it.
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_05: Um take your omega 3s, be prepared, have your pads in the car.
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_05: I want to see everyone with a real heating patch in their middle console.
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_05: I'm gonna go order someone to see it, send me pictures.
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_05: But I don't know, just in general, women are just so profound.
• 1:09:04
  SPEAKER_05: I just want all women to feel the profoundness because once it's unlocked, like I feel like every woman has their like starting point with it.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_05: And then once like you kind of have to do your own research, it's like, or just let time kind of do its thing because what is so profound to me may not be so profound to someone else, or like my starting point in realizing, wow, this is crazy, isn't gonna be someone else's.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_05: But I would say in general, being in tune with yourself, taking into consideration your needs, not ignoring them, not letting your body scream at you before you um take care of yourself is what I want people to take away.
• 1:09:49
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, some lovely invitations for everyone.
• 1:09:52
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I'm really doubling down on everything that Jamie just said.
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Jamie, if listeners would like to connect with you, how can they do so and maybe learn more about your offerings?
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram at thegoddessway or no, it's thegoddess.way, because I couldn't get the goddessway.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_05: Annoying, but thegoddess.co.co.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_05: You can find me there.
• 1:10:32
  SPEAKER_05: Um I have TikTok still.
• 1:10:37
  SPEAKER_05: No.
• 1:10:38
  SPEAKER_05: Instagram and the websites where it's at.
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_02: Wonderful.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_02: We'll put all that in the show notes along with the link to the red temp book that Jamie mentioned.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll also put in that 58th Um Battalion movie.
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that I mentioned, and I'll be sure to send that to you too, Jamie.
• 1:10:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_05: Well, thank you so much for this.
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_05: I really enjoyed this.
• 1:11:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you, Jamie.
• 1:11:02
  SPEAKER_02: This has been really lovely and um just delightful to reconnect with you.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for sharing all of your wisdom with everyone today.
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and thanks for everyone tuning in.
• 1:11:14
  SPEAKER_02: If this conversation was impactful for you or insightful, we invite you to share this episode with a friend.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Perhaps a friend who you would like to talk about your period more with, or maybe a friend who has already begun to talk about periods, and maybe you would like to um yeah, continue to have more of that conversation with that friend.
• 1:11:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you can share this episode with them, and um yeah, we look forward to connecting with you and continuing to live this cyclical journey alongside you.
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_02: In the meantime, take care of yourselves and take care of each other.
• 1:11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Fighting for the voice of the voice, living the pain from your wife, from your voice with the face of the