Hello and welcome to the Cosmic Nomad.
I'm your host, Bailey Rushlow, and this is a space for the
curious and the heart lead where we explore the human experience
through travel, nature, spirituality, and real life
transformation through beautiful conversations.
As I discover my way of living what I call an inspired life, I
share the practices, stories, and perspectives that have
helped guide me back to myself. In this episode, we are diving
into the wisdom of the feminine cycle.
I'm going to be sharing what I've learned about living in
rhythm with my body. How?
Each. Phase holds its own kind of
power and magic and how we can move through them with more
awareness, support, grace. And this is for anyone curious
about cyclical living, whether you yourself bleed or you love
someone who does. Hello everyone, welcome to
today's episode of the Cosmic Nomad.
I'm so glad you're here. Please do whatever it is that
makes you feel comfortable right now.
Maybe it's taking a little stretch, twisting your
shoulders, your back, your hips, seeing what cracks and pops,
moving your neck from side to side, up and down, very gently,
taking a deep breath. Most of us don't do that enough.
So I always like to take a moment and just remind us, you
know, today's topic is something very special and dear to my
heart because it has absolutely changed my life.
And it is something that we all can relate to because all people
came from the woman. All people came from the womb.
And whether you have a womb in your physical body or not, you
came from 1:00. And that alone deserves our
deepest honor and deepest respect because it was our first
home. And it's very symbolic in in
many cultures as the void, as the dark cosmic feminine
mystery. And it's a place in which we
return to when we die. And it is something that has
been the most shamed and the most stigmatized and the most
hated, the most misunderstood, very intentionally, I think.
And it's wild because this way is, is the only way we have ever
known. It was never different in our
memory of time and our memory of history because history is told
from the perspective of the victors, from the perspective of
the men, from the perspective of of the heroes, right.
And feminine history has been suppressed for a very, very long
time. I also just want to say that
whether you have never bled, maybe you're awaiting your first
bleed. Maybe you no longer bleed and
you've moved through menopause. Maybe you have had a
hysterectomy. Maybe you are trans or non
binary. You are still cyclical because
you are nature. So you can still tune into.
All of these. Phases as well.
You can look at the Earth's seasons like a mirror to our own
energetic patterns, and there's no one right way to be in
relationship with yourself as a cyclical being.
This is just an invitation to explore, to reclaim a rhythm
that feels true to you. And this wisdom is never meant
to exclude anyone. It is here for anyone who
chooses to listen. I also want to extend a message
to any men listening that you most likely have cyclical beings
in your life. You most likely have people that
are bleeding around you. Sisters, mother's friends,
girlfriends, lovers, wives, whoever, right?
And we're surrounded by it and we are taught this languaging
around it like, oh, it's that time of the month and oh, she's
on the rag and it's, she's hormonal and all of these
negative things. Let's just cut all that from our
vocabulary, OK? And it's not your fault.
We, we do it too. But let's find ways that we can
be supportive to the people in our lives that are going through
these deep processes because they really need our support.
And maybe there's someone in your life that you could be
listening to this information and like slowly help teach them
about this because most, most of us are so uninformed and we
don't even know where to begin. Maybe you guys can listen to
this together and find ways that you can support each other
through your growth and evolution and understanding of
the womb as a powerful, powerful portal and not something to be
shamed and dismissed. So for 10s of thousands of
years, humans lived in reverence to the rhythms of the Earth and
the moon and the body. Evidence from over 30,000 years
ago shows that our ancestors worshipped and honored the womb
not just as a place of birth, but as a symbol of deep mystery
and power. One of my favorite stories is
how archaeologists have discovered burial sites around
the world where bodies were laid to rest painted with red ochre,
which is a natural pigment that was symbolic of menstrual blood.
And many of these were found in what we now call womb caves,
which were circular, dark, earthen spaces, caves connected
to the goddess. Because ancient societies and
ancient cultures and indigenous peoples around the world hold a
shared belief that caves were symbolic of the womb.
They were like the womb of the mother of our mother Earth,
right? And so a lot of people were
buried in the wombs of the earth in these caves.
A lot of people were also born in these caves, symbolic of
coming out. Of the womb of the mother.
So not only are caves particularly important, but this
reverence it existed so long before the rise of organized
religion and long before the patriarchy as we know it.
But. Around 3004 thousand years ago,
something shifted and this is what we refer to as the rise of
the patriarchy and there were many things that led to the this
rise, but some things include land ownership.
For the first time land became something you can buy, purchase,
own. Control over lineage changed
from the matriarchal line. Taking the the family name, for
example, the man typically would come and live with the woman and
with the woman's family. It wasn't the woman goes and
live with the man and the man's family and takes his name.
It was actually the opposite. The the power of the womb and
the women and the people who bled became very dangerous to
the systems being built. And so began the erasure of
feminine wisdom. And then, you know, agriculture
expanded and society moved away from nature based rhythms and
into productivity, hierarchy, ownership.
There's so much to be said for each one of these events and
time periods. I'm just trying to give you a
vast overview quickly so you can know why this wisdom was
suppressed and then how we can reclaim it and why our
reclamation is a revolution. So after this we have the witch
hunts, which were from around 1400 to the 1700s.
So it's been less than 300 years since the last woman was killed
for witchcraft and by which it. I don't mean what Hollywood made
it out to be. The word is just was just a
catch all for anyone who lived in opposition to the dominant
system, anyone who carried knowledge, power, identity that
threatened the church or the patriarchy.
So the people who were targeted were midwives and herbalists and
people with deep knowledge. Of healing and plants.
And those who practiced folk traditions outside of the church
and menstruating, people who honored the rhythms of the moon
and people who were queer or gender nonconforming.
And the witch hunts were not just a tragic chapter in
history. Because I think all of us feel
it. Most women, most people in my
life at least. We look back at that and we feel
a connection to it. And it's not just because it was
a sad thing that happened. It's because it was a deliberate
systemic erasure of ancestral wisdom, of feminine power, of of
body based living in accordance with the earth and rooted in the
land, in the womb. It was a spiritual colonization
and it worked. Many, many of us today still
carry that fear in our bones of being too much, too loud, too
intuitive, too expressive, too different.
This is the ancestral trauma. It is not just a personal
feeling of oh, I don't want to be too much.
It is collective. It is like a scar.
That lives in our epigenetic memory of our DNA that we carry
with us. And I know that's a little bit
heavy. I don't want to go too far into
it because that's not the point of what we're talking about
today. So moving on, eventually we came
into the industrial revolution right?
Which single handedly put us all on a 24 hour productivity cycle,
funnily enough one that mirrors the male hormonal rhythm, not
the 28 day cycle of a menstruating person.
So instead of moving with the seasons, we were asked to be the
same way every day. To show up, perform, produce and
override the body. And its natural ebb and flow.
And here we are today. And now we live in a world where
PCOS and hormonal imbalances and infertility and fatigue and
burnout and endo how millions of people experience menstrual pain
every month and we're told that it's just part of being a woman.
Or if you're religious or Christian, that is.
You might believe that this is part of our curse.
I believed that for many years of my life that this was.
All a part of the fall of man and how Eve ate the apple and
the serpent tempted her and all the whole, the whole story, the
whole origin story, right? Our origins and the myths that
we believe and form our reality today.
Do we believe that this is just our fault?
That this is our burden that we must carry?
What if we stop treating our cycles like a nuisance?
What if we stop talking about them like they are the worst?
What if we started treating? Them like a map.
What if we started listening to our bodies cues?
Because when we learn to live in a rhythm with ourselves,
everything begins to shift. Our symptoms become like
guideposts showing us where to go our our pain and our body
becomes insight and our body becomes not just something to
fix or to fight or to quiet, but a sacred ally and a vessel for
creating a beautiful and connected life.
And it's really hard to do that when we are struggling so much
with our menstruation and cycle every month, because we are not
taught anything about it. So how could it?
How could we expect? It to be.
Different like if you don't know anything about your cycle, I
don't even blame you I'm not like, oh you girl, you should
have known like no, because I didn't know we don't know we we
don't talk about this we don't have conversations about this so
whether you are a educated cycle person and you've been tracking
and you've been keeping up and you know what's happening each
month amazing. I hope you can still.
Learn something from this. If you are someone that has
never studied this or learned about this in their life,
awesome. I'm so glad you're here because
there's something for everyone that's going to be shared in
this space because you don't know what I'm going to say and
it might just be something that you need to hear so.
If I rewind back in time, not as far as where we've just been,
but as far as my life, when I was 12 years old, I started my
bleed and I will never forget that day because I felt my
intuition so strongly. I woke up that morning and I
felt intuitively that I should bring an extra pair of underwear
with me to school. I was homeschooled, but I had
this little tutorial that I went to every Tuesday and did some
classes there. And so I didn't question it.
I just thought, OK. I've rolled up this little.
Day of the week, underwear and put it in my purse.
I remember going to the bathroom mid class and I saw this little
rust colored stain in my underwear and I was like Oh my
God it happened. It's happened.
Like I'm a woman now. I was sitting all alone in the
hallway school bathroom just staring at my underwear.
I remember going back to class and feeling very different.
I was like, I wonder. If anyone can tell.
You know that I've started and luckily I had the little day of
the week panties in my purse and was able to go back to the
bathroom and change them, which is so funny because what good
did that really do to just change the underwear?
But anyways, it's all that I, it's all that I knew to do with
the time. And then my, my cycle became
something that I was kind of excited about happening, but I
just still didn't have any languaging to understand what it
was that was happening, what I was feeling.
But I very quickly latched on to the negativity of it.
Once all my friends had started, it was always.
Oh. Great, I'm starting my, you
know, shark week was what we called it.
And like I'm get ready for my period and cramps and cravings
and all this stuff. And it was, it was fun to be
very negative about it because it was a, it was a woman only
space. You know, when you're, when
you're a young teenage girl, you're like, this is something
that only the women understand. And so it was fun until my
period became so irregular and so uncomfortable and I had
really awful cramps and I never knew when it would happen.
It was so. Regular it would it would be
like. One time and then two months
later it would happen again and then it would happen twice in
the same month and then wouldn't happen and it was just it was
all over the place. So I could never plan for
anything. I remember having my period
multiple times on the day that we were going on like a little
family beach trip and just be like, Oh my God, no.
Like I'm starting on the day of the family beach vacation, you
know? And it was just the worst.
It was always the worst. And this was confirmed by not
only all of my friends, but also all of the media, all of the
movies, all of the TV shows, right?
You never see someone have their bleeding be like, oh, I've
started good. I've been taking care of myself
all month so that this is going to be a peaceful process for me.
I've been supporting myself with foods and rituals and routines
that feel grounding for me so that this is going to be a
really beautiful process of being able to connect with
myself and my intuition. Like that would have been, I, I,
I would have thought you were an alien.
Like, like, what planet are you living on?
Because on Earth, having your bleed and being a cyclical
person is not a vibe at all, right.
And so it was in 2018 that I first started hearing people
talk about cyclical living, fertility awareness, tracking
your cycle, all this stuff. And it was very intriguing to me
because if anything could help me feel better without me having
to go on birth control or medication, I was open to it.
And that was when my my journey began of starting to track my
cycle, starting to understand how it works.
And now my life looks completely different than it did then.
Now I actually live my life according to my cycle.
I plan my social events, I plan meals, I plan things, I'm going
to do creative projects and routines and rest.
So literally, it has changed my life.
And I'm going to share with you how and why and how you can
apply. This to your world.
I really came to understand that pain and imbalances in our room
typically stem from emotional or spiritual related things, and
while period pain is super common, it is not completely
normal even though we've been sold on the idea.
That it is like. Truly marketed to by advertising
and the media etcetera, that this is normal and.
To me, this is such a sign that we've been disconnected from our
wombs for so long that we've normalized the pain and the
symptoms that come from being divorced from our center of
creation. And even by just having this
conversation and by being here and listening, you're undoing
something that has been done in the past in in your lineage, in
your ancestry, in your own life and your own beliefs about your
blood, about your cycle, about your body.
Even just by being curious and open to be this far into this
episode, it shows that you're willing to be curious, that
you're willing for something to change.
And that is all it takes for something powerful to unravel.
Just going to take a quick pause here and let you know that my
Patreon is officially launched and it's become such a beautiful
way to support this podcast and the work that I'm creating.
So each month I will be sharing guided meditations, private
podcast style voice notes, and behind the scenes glimpses of my
creative world. Things that I don't share
anywhere else on social media aside from the membership option
on Patreon. There's also a storefront where
I have my ebooks and an option to order customized guided
meditations from me that are created specifically with you in
mind, where we will brainstorm on what you're looking for.
I'll create it and then deliver it to you to listen to forever.
And there are a few different tier options depending on what
feels good for you. And it's just a really great way
to stay connected, support my work as an independent artist,
and walk a little deeper with me.
The link is in the show notes, and also in the show notes are
links to my favorite products when it comes to supporting
myself during my bleed, during each phase of my cycle, which
we're about to get into. And there are some affiliate
links in there that are going to give you discount codes to
things. It's a whole treasure trove.
So don't miss out on it after the episode.
Go check it out and thank you so much for listening.
Let's dive into The Four Seasons.
OK, so when we look at the rhythms of nature, you see four
specific seasons, right? For this planet, we have winter,
spring, summer, fall. So the first season we're going
to look at is winter. Winter is the time of our
menstruation, so the time when we were bleeding.
And Winter and menstruation share a very powerful connection
because they both embody the energies of rest, introspection
and renewal. This is when the earth slows
down, the animals hibernate, the plants conserve their energy,
and during this time our bodies do the same.
We signal the need for rest and going inward, and it also
encourages us to take a break from our usual activities,
running around and doing all kinds of things and just slowing
down, prioritizing self-care. And as we shed the the uterine
lining, blood and stem cells and tissue and minerals and all
kinds of stuff. Our blood is incredible.
As much as it has been stigmatized, it is a marvel.
Science doesn't even understand all that it can do because it's
never been studied before. Just now people are starting to
study menstrual blood for the first time because it has been
stigmatized as dirty and pure, ugly, full of bacteria, all
kinds of stuff that's actually completely not true.
And as we shed this lining, we are actually releasing
everything from the past month, making space for the new
beginning. And this is the time to surround
ourselves with things that are very gentle, like warm baths,
nourishing food, restful activities, things that help us
honor our need for comfort and support.
And it's the time to let your body receive.
It's also a beautiful time to reflect on your life, your
emotional process, to connect deeper with yourself, to release
what no longer serves you. And I think it's also important
to observe how you feel about your blood and about the flow.
Because most of us raised in this Western society and
patriarchal world, we've been conditioned to feel shame and
disgust, right? Because our period usually comes
with feelings of it's unpleasant and symptoms like cramps and
bloating and headaches and exhaustion, they're actually
symptoms of a bigger picture. They're not the result of the
bleeding itself. So note.
What your body is. Communicating with you in this
time and some of my favorite ways to support myself in this
period is to prep food for myself, shop ahead of time, and
have things that are going to be really nourishing for me during
my bleed. If you are a partner to someone
who is bleeding, this is an amazing way that you could show
up for them. Hey babe, you don't have to
worry about shopping this week. I took care of it.
All your favorite things are in the fridge.
Everything that's not, it's not just junk food and stuff that
we're craving, but stuff that's actually really supportive for
helping your flow, helping your blood, helping your body,
assisting you during this time like.
That is so hot. OK.
Another thing is cleaning your space.
If you're sensitive to your surroundings like me, it's a
game changer to have a tidy house before you enter your womb
cave. OK, another thing is make
yourself a. Little period box.
It's like doesn't have to be a box.
It could be a drawer, could be somewhere in your closet, but it
might have all of your sacred items that you are going to use
for this week. Maybe it has bath salts or tea
for your cramps or hot water bottle or reusable pads.
Those are my favorite period panties and reusable pads
because you they're so soft and then you can just wash them as
soon as you're done using them. It's amazing.
And you just reuse them. So I literally haven't bought
menstrual products in many years because I just have the same
ones. It's amazing to cut down on
waste and plastic that way. And so many studies point to
things like cotton pads and tampons, even organic ones,
being soaked in chemicals and soaked in cancer causing
substances that enter through the tender tissues of your
vaginal canal. So if you can, opt for something
like period panties, reusable pads, or even create the space
in your home where you're able to free bleed.
Maybe you have a certain towel that you wrap around your waist
at this time and you can sit and lay in bed with it and you're
not going to get blood on things.
Maybe you have a set of red? Sheets that you use just during
this week that you know, on the heavy days that you don't have
to worry about your white sheets staining.
I think every woman I know has been there.
We're like, oh damn it, I got blood on the sheets again.
It's also incredibly important to communicate to your friends,
families, partners, how you're doing, how they can support you
and respect your need for space and say no to activities, to
going out, to working overtime, to doing things with people, to
go into parties, to showing up to no.
This is not the time for that. You can do that next week.
If you have kids, teach them about menstruation in a positive
and age appropriate way to destigmatize it.
Because there's nothing to be ashamed of and kids are so
receptive to learning new things and it's all about how we talk
about it that often informs their experience, right?
So we actually have the power to change the narrative of how we
teach menstruation to kids because we can shape their
perspective on what a holistic relationship with our bodies
really looks like. I would also really recommend
gentle movement. Like you don't have to just be
laying in bed for a week. I feel very creative on my bleed
personally. I'm doing lots of art, I'm
connecting with myself. I'm usually staying home for the
first like 2 days and just being with myself and I love that that
that suits me. But I.
Also love to have a. Little bit of movement too.
Could be yoga, could be stretching or walking outside
sitting in the sun. Save the intense workouts for
another phase in your cycle and and see what feels most
supportive for you here. I wrote this down in my notes
app a few months ago. I, I said as we bleed, the
emotions that have been held in our womb space are given the
chance to flow and be processed. When emotions are not addressed,
they become stuck and they manifest physically our bodies.
Offer us guidance when? Our menstrual cycles are out of
balance, signaling that it's time to examine our thoughts,
feelings and beliefs. Menstrual cycles mirror our
physical, emotional and energetic well-being, inviting
us to reflect on how we truly feel about ourselves and our
bodies. There are.
So many. Practices as well as foods,
snacks, herbs, drinks, like all kinds of stuff that I'm
including in my Embrace Your Cycle ebook.
So check that. Out if you want.
To go even deeper into this conversation, but let's move on
from the winter months and yeah, into spring.
I'm not going to get too deep into this, but I do want to say
that tracking your cycle, tracking your symptoms and
identifying what phase you're in is so important to help you
understand your body better, to recognize patterns and
anticipate changes as opposed to being surprised and shocked by
them and feeling betrayed by our bodies, which happens so often.
So mark the first day of your period.
This is for day one of your cycle and this will help you
track the length and the patterns that you notice.
Keep it. Just keep a note on your phone.
It doesn't have to be with a fancy app.
Just observe your body. This is your invitation to
observe yourself and to track your symptoms and ask yourself,
what am I experiencing? And write them down everyday
mood swings, cramps, energy levels, emotional symptoms that
you experience, the heaviness of your flow.
Literally write it all down. Just start observing yourself,
all right, moving into spring. So after menstruation day, like
567, right? We're, we're moving out of our
bleed and we start to feel different.
Why do we feel different because of estrogen?
She's she's our girl in this, in this season.
OK, estrogen levels start to rise, which helps to rebuild the
lining of the uterus that you just shed during your period.
So your ovaries. And This is why when our.
Bleed is over. We start to feel like, oh, have
an increased energy and mental clarity and I start to feel more
confident. And it really is like you are in
the season of spring, right? And that's, that's the energy.
It's a time to embrace new opportunities, set goals,
connect with your inner vision for the month ahead.
What do I want to create? What do I want to see happen?
Who do I want to connect with? Start making plans.
Start, you know, setting things in your calendar.
Get yourself some flowers in your home.
Be in natural light and lit spaces like open the windows.
You know, the light can really uplift your mood and and
energize you. Get into your art and your
creativity. Connect with your community,
express your needs and your desires and your dreams and your
visions, and cultivate ways in which you can go after those
things with actionable steps. With actionable steps because
you have the energy of spring supporting you like there's
nothing you cannot do right. This also might be a time when
you feel more like doing cardio or Pilates or strength training.
So to support this natural process of the thickening of the
uterine lining, you really want to focus on eating foods that
boost estrogen production and liver detox and production of
cervical fluid and support hormonal balance.
Overall, that is is so beautiful and you will feel such a
difference eating based on what your body needs hormonally each
week of your cycle. I'm not saying, oh, I can't eat
this or I can't eat this because I'm on this part of my cycle.
Like you don't need to be regimented and strict with
yourself. I just want to encourage you to
eat Whole Foods, you know, foods that are potentially unprocessed
if you can, because that is a huge key to reducing
inflammation in the body because inflammation is actually a
leading cause of menstrual cramps.
So one thing you could do is not drinking coffee on an empty
stomach. Another thing is reducing toxins
in your environment. Endocrine disrupting stuff like
skin care and cleaning supplies and perfume and air fresheners
and detergents and all this stuff made with synthetic
fragrances disrupts your hormones, which can lead to
cycle irregularities. It's it's so funny that for
years I could not figure out why I had migraines and chronic
fatigue and terrible cramps. On my period, but I was
literally using Febreeze and Lysol and Clorox wipes and
scented candles and perfume and body sprays and all kinds of
stuff from Bath and Body Works, scented lotions, fragrance,
deodorant and so many other things and I didn't understand
that this. Build up actually made it.
Hard for my liver. Which is your the filtration
system of your body to process hormones like estrogen which
cause imbalances and literal dis ease in my body disease right?
Inflammation being the root of all disease.
These things as endocrine disruptors create inflammation
in the body, which again is a leading cause for cramps and
feeling shitty during your cycle.
OK, so. I'm not telling.
You to regulate everything that you eat and keep track of it and
all this. Like this is not about.
Micromanaging yourself. This is about observation and
support. How can we observe what we feel
and then how can we pivot and support based on what our body
is telling us? These symptoms are not a result
of just being a woman and just having a period and just they're
the result of our environment. There is a result of our mindset
around these things and the result of what we are putting in
or putting on ourselves that can be contributing factors to the
intensity that we feel these irregularities.
OK, so estrogen is on the rise. We're starting to feel good.
We're starting to feel more confident.
Our skin is getting more clear. Our eyes are getting brighter.
Our body's feeling extra curvy, extra fun, extra flirty.
We're moving into summer. This is ovulation energy.
This is when you want to take your thirst trap pictures.
OK, this is. Vibrant, expansive, full of
life, reflecting peak vitality, creativity.
Connection. This is the most fun time for a
lot of women, for a lot of women.
I obviously can't speak for everyone, but traditionally
speaking, and it's going to be different for everyone, of
course, but typically this is between days 15 and 20.
So what makes us feel so good is if we look back at spring, we
were just in spring, right? During spring, as our estrogen
was rising, it was also preparing an egg.
And this egg is about to be released during ovulation.
This is when we're our most fertile, our most fun and
flirty, right? But also when we have the
highest chance of getting pregnant, our only chance of
getting pregnant. Did you know that you can only
actually get pregnant like 5-6 days a month?
That's it. Most people that I've told that
to have not believed. Me, they've been like, no, you
can get pregnant anytime, all the time.
Like, no, you can't. No, you can't.
That's a lie. So during the spring where we
just were the week before. Your body is preparing an egg.
To be released during ovulation. And so now we're in the summer,
that egg is being released and you might also notice cervical
fluid at this time, which is a great indication of your
fertility. It's actually an amazing thing.
We used to call it discharge and it sounds like gross.
But this actually helps the sperm travel up to meet the egg.
Like it's like creates a. Super highway and if
fertilization doesn't occur, then the egg dissolves and your
body begins to prepare for going back into winter and starting to
bleed again. This is an amazing time to flirt
with your life. Dress.
Up, go out, take pictures, be with your friends.
You're going to have more energy.
So maybe even longer days, you might even feel like a
completely different person than you do in spring or in fall or
in winter. Like ovulation is a very special
time can also be so much energy that sometimes for me it even
gives me a bit of anxiety because I'm like, Oh my God,
this is. This is a lot happening.
It's a lot happening. Which is then a little bit
jarring sometimes when we move from this into fall.
And fall is what we call the luteal phase.
It used like it's a really bad reputation because this is when
our emotions feel really big and overwhelming.
And progesterone like rises. That's the hormone that rises at
this time to support your body in case you're pregnant.
But if that doesn't happen, then it begins to drop.
And as progesterone drops with it, our mood sometimes does too,
and our tolerance for things. But this, this phase is not a
problem to fix, OK? It is a messenger to you.
And this single handedly shifted my relationship with my cycle so
much because my sensitivity even on a regular day is.
Really high, but especially in my luteal phase where I'm at
right now. It is.
It's very, very, very. High.
It feels like the veil is very thin between worlds.
It feels like the things. That I've been ignoring
throughout my other weeks of my cycle might come up.
Maybe things that irritated me or brushed off earlier in the
month when I'm looking through the world through rose colored
glasses and my follicular face and my ovulation and now it's
like staring at me. You're not crazy during this
week, but you are the most honest version of yourself that
you can be. Because.
Your. Body is.
Less. Willing to tolerate what is not
aligned for you, the. Sensitivity that you.
Feel is not a flaw. When you learn to work with it,
the luteal Phase I. Think can be your most
clarifying time because it helps you to reassess your boundaries,
your truth, your desires. And it's not a time for pushing
yourself, it is a time to listen closer, to tend to your inner
world and to make space for what feels nourishing.
So for me, for example, this morning, I am on day 24 of my
cycle, so I know I'm going to start and probably about four
days. So I'm feeling extra tender,
extra non energetic, like I don't want to see anyone.
I don't really want to do things, so I'm not making any
plans. I might see one or two friends
that feel nourishing to me, that don't require a lot that I can
unmask with. We might have really chill time
together, right? And I'm also going to be doing
grocery shopping in the next day or two and stocking up for
things I want to have on my bleed.
I'm also preparing to make sure that I have all my pads and my
my period panties like everything is set, everything's
ready for me so that when I enter that kind of womb cave,
I'm supported. And to me this is the phase
where when things are not working, it becomes very
obvious. It's when you're.
Body and your emotions start like waving little red flags and
saying like hello, I'm really overwhelmed or like I need more
rest I need more space or this dynamic is not serving me again.
It's when we are our most honest it's not because we're
irrational. It's because the mask comes off.
We stop people pleasing. We see the cracks in our
relationships or in our routines or in the way we treat
ourselves. And when we don't understand
this, we shame it and we resist it.
But when we welcome this honesty and what it's trying to show us,
it becomes a really sacred time for boundary setting, for
preparing to release in our bleed next week.
And instead of gaslighting yourself for being like, oh,
this is too much, this is oh, it's just because I'm about to
start my bleed. I guess I'm just feeling so
irrational. Like I hear my friends say that
sometimes and I'm like, girl, you are not irrational.
You're honest, you're not crazy. You're just unmasked, right?
What do I need to say no to? How can I simplify my life?
What is this anger showing me? What is this sensitivity showing
me? Where am I out of alignment with
myself or with something that my soul is calling me to do and I
am not doing it right? I made myself pancakes this
morning and I watched Love on the Spectrum, which is one of my
favorite, favorite shows. And it's so wholesome and it's
so pure and so wonderful. And I just let myself cry at
9:00 in the morning eating my pancake that is the literal
face. That's part of it anyways.
But I also journaled a lot this morning, sitting on my roof in
the sunshine, getting my early morning light in my eyes,
balancing my hormones. And I connected with myself.
And I looked in my myself in the mirror today and I thought, I
don't really feel my best. I don't really look my best.
I feel like a few weeks ago I looked better.
It's so funny how our literal perception of our self can
change based on what week of our cycle we're in and based on what
hormones are present. It is wild.
It's wild. I'm if you're listening to this
this far, I'm sure you have experienced that at some point
and you know what I'm talking about.
Your luteal phase holds such deep wisdom, and especially when
we have reference for her, it feels like she really she is
that like sacred. The the archetype for the for
the ludial woman is the sorceress, the priestess.
She's mysterious, she's a little bit edgy.
She comes in when you least expect it.
And then we sink into the next archetype when we start our
bleed. She's the Crone, she's the wise
woman, the wise elder, and she has so many truths to show us.
After the Elder, we move into spring, and the archetype for
this woman is the Maiden. She's young, she's vibrant,
she's excited for life. She is spring.
And then into ovulation we have the Goddess, the woman who is
fully. Awakened and alive in her
potential, she feels like everything in the universe is
saying yes to her. She is invited into every space
she's in. She's welcomed all through
nature. She's going after what she
wants, right? And then?
We dip back into this sorcerer's priestess.
So the archetypes are beautiful, the energies are beautiful.
So no matter where you are in your journey, whether you've
been doing this for years or you're just now remembering that
your body moves like the moon, which also.
On that note. So many women throughout history
have been connected to the moon cycle, have been bleeding with a
new moon or bleeding with a full moon because the moon and women
have 28 day cycles typically, and it's so powerful to look up
at the sky and see a physical representation of you.
When I am ovulating and the moon is at her fullest, I see her and
me. When the moon is dark and still
and quiet and new and I am starting my bleed, I feel so
deeply connected to her. And it's also interesting
because the root of the word lunatic is Luna, which means
moon, right? So literally women who were
connected to the moon were called lunatics.
We, they started to stigmatize our connection to the cycles
outside of us. And so when we do this work and
we reclaim the territory that is ours, the space that is ours,
the blood that is ours, it's our way of reminding ourselves that
we belong to the earth, that our rhythm is not sinful, it's not
wrong. How can it be sinful when our
menstrual blood is the elixir with which life itself is?
Created. How can it be dirty?
How can it be shameful? Your body is.
Not. A machine and she is not a 24
hour cycle, she is like a garden.
And when we are taking care of her with curiosity and presence,
everything begins to change. And.
There is so much I could say. About this I literally I'm
considering creating a whole course around this just.
Teaching women from my personal experience and perspectives and
the trainings that I've done and the teachings and the workshops
and everything that I've personally been a part of, I'm
like, OK, I've been collecting this information for so long and
I know this was just a brief overview of everything.
I kind of want to create a course that is more in depth.
With everything that I've been talking about here because I
know I can go so much deeper, but I wanted to keep it easy to
understand quickly, applicable to our own lives.
And you know, able to reach people no matter where they are
in in their journey with their cycle.
So maybe I will make a course. But regardless, I I hope that
this can be your permission to slow down, to listen in, and to
build a relationship with yourself that honors every
season, every feeling, and every version of you without shame,
without stigmatizing yourself for anything that you've ever
heard about the cycle. Let's start to rebrand our
relationship with our bodies and our relationships with ourselves
and with other women, with men, with people around the world who
need to be reminded of the power of the womb.
That you bleed every month and don't die.
That is magic. That is power.
Thank you. So.
Much for taking the. Time to be here with me today
for listening, for sharing this space.
And if today's episode spoke to something in you, please feel
free to share it with a friend who you think would also
resonate and or leave a review. It helps more than you know.
I'll be back next Tuesday with another episode, and until then,
open heart, open mind. Stay curious.