The Menstruality Podcast - 128: Can Menstrual Cycle Awareness Teach us How to Live Sustainably on Earth? (Lazola MaDuka)

Episode Date: January 18, 2024

Our guest today, Lazola MaDuka lives a homesteading life on a biodynamic farm amongst giant mountains and trees in South Africa. Her life is utterly wedded to the land, the weather and the seasons - her land tells her what it needs and when. Lazola is also a Period + Menstrual Cycle Embodiment Coach, a Red Tent Facilitator and a certified Menstruality Mentor  - she’s a graduate of the Red School Menstruality Leadership Programme. So, in our conversation today, she connects the dots between her relationship to the seasonal landscape around her, and her relationship to the cyclical landscape within her own body. Along the way she illuminates how menstrual cycle awareness can be a pathway home to our body’s ever-changing needs, as well as to creating sustainable ways of living personally and collectively on our earth. We explore:What the soil and compost has taught Lazola about the power of inner winter and how to claim rest as a natural birthright.  How cultivating more intimacy with both our inner seasons and the seasons in nature around us creates a vivid sense of belonging (and what Lazola’s baboon neighbours have taught her about belonging together!). Lazola’s vision for how the practice of cycle awareness could transform the way we live on earth. ---Receive our free video training: Love Your Cycle, Discover the Power of Menstrual Cycle Awareness to Revolutionise Your Life - www.redschool.net/love---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email [e-mail]---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.schoolSophie Jane Hardy: @sophie.jane.hardy - https://www.instagram.com/sophie.jane.hardyLazola MaDuka: @wombflow_ - https://www.instagram.com/wombflow_

Welcome to the Menstruality Podcast, where we share inspiring conversations about the power of menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause. This podcast is brought to you by Red School, where we're training the menstruality leaders of the future. I'm your host, Sophie Jane Hardy, and I'll be joined often by Red School's founders, Alexandra and Sharni, as well as an inspiring group of pioneers, activists, changemakers and creatives to explore how you can unashamedly claim the power of the menstrual cycle to activate your unique form of leadership for yourself, your community and the world. Hey, thank you for listening today. Welcome back to the Menstruality Podcast. Today, my guest Lazola Maduka lives a homesteading life on a biodynamic farm amongst gigantic mountains and trees in South Africa. And her daily life is utterly wedded to the land,

the weather and the seasons around her. Her land tells her what it needs and when. But Luzola is also a period and menstrual cycle embodiment coach and a red tent facilitator and a certified menstruality mentor because she's a graduate of the Red School Menstruality Leadership Program. So in our chat today she connects the dots between her relationship to the seasonal landscape around her and her relationship to the cyclical landscape within her own body. It's completely fascinating. Along the way she illuminates how menstrual cycle awareness can be a path home to our body's ever-changing needs as well as to creating sustainable ways of living personally and collectively on our earth so we explore what soil and compost has taught her about the power

of inner winter and how we can each claim rest as a natural birthright, how cultivating more intimacy with both our inner seasons and the seasons in nature can create a really vivid sense of belonging and there's a funny piece where Lizola shares what her baboon neighbours have taught her about belonging together in community. And also, Lizola shares her vision for how the practice of menstrual cycle awareness could transform the way that we live on Earth. So let's get started with, can menstrual cycle awareness teach us how to live sustainably on Earth? With Lizola Maduka. Hi Elazola, I'm delighted to be here with you. I'm delighted to be having this

conversation to find out more about your beautiful world and life. And let's start as we always do with cycles. And I'd love to hear where you're at cyclically and how you're feeling. Hi Sophie I am on cycle day 22 I can I can begin to feel myself becoming more critical of myself and my surroundings I'm also feeling like I need to shake, shake it off, like shake something off and let go of something in my body. And yeah, I'll talk more about what I did this morning that actually, I think, aligns with exactly this that I want to do, which is just to shake things off. Yeah, that's just how I'm feeling today. Can you tell us more now about what you did this morning yeah so recently I've had the need to really slow down but like really extra slow down I think my body is tired it's a combination of life and I think also end of the year it's just a combination of many things

and I've been really called to really slow down and and as part of that to support myself I've been going to TRE classes and it's actually my first time so I've never done it I've always wanted to to to try and so this month I've been going every week and so this morning I did one like an hour um and it was really really powerful in the in the in that I really trembled up like from my toes until my sort of abdominal and then coming up to sort of my chest area and it was just such a beautiful release after that session and to be able to have the safety and the freedom to also make sound sometimes um which was actually also my first time, it was really liberating and really beautiful. And so that actually really helped with this kind of energy that I have today, which is just wanting to shake things off.

I'm looking forward to a little African stomping tonight as well to sort of shake off my kidneys I also feel like I need to sort of move in that area and that always helps me yeah let go yeah I saw that you offered an embodied cycle check-in on your Instagram recently and I've never seen it before that way and it was so beautiful to be like I know exactly where she is by how she's moving her body right now and it was so inspiring can you just tell us how you do that how that works for you yeah I feel like words sometimes don't do me service so sometimes I struggle to be able to express how I feel and sometimes I do think it's English because English is not my first language and so and but it is the language that I socialize with

and I work with that I you know I I live with but somehow sometimes when it comes to like really like internal feelings sometimes I struggle and so and the way that I communicate to people even my loved ones close to me if I need to tell you something I need to move so that I can really understand for myself but also for you to understand how it is that I feel. And so it started with, so my practice of like an embodied check-in would be typically to just put on some music and I would take a few deep breaths in and try to come into a state of relaxness in my body. then from there onwards I will try to listen to which part of my body wants to naturally move and then this is the beginning of the dance and already when my chest wants to expand this is a message to me and right now I can feel it's that my heart just wants to open up and receive or be what is

it what is it that the body wants to release through me and what is my message for today and it's such a great way also to like see like where is it painful you know like what's what's so what's not working quite the way I would like it to yeah you know hearing you speak about the way you inhabit your body you know I think of where you live and I want to ask you all about where you live and how you live on the earth on the land where you are but it's reminding me of something that we actually shared through Red School in an email a couple of years ago about how cycle awareness supports us in our activism for our earth. And it was, we drew at this point that cycle awareness connects us

to our animal nature nature to our physicality and it keeps us sensing and feeling and alive in an alive relationship with all of life around us rather than you know the kind of push and grind of our cultures can mean that we get deadened and armored up and we stop sensing and feeling and actually that capacity to sense and feel and be in connection and communication and communion with life is what plugs us into our love which can then fuel our action over the earth and just something about the way you're moving and speaking I can feel that this is your life that this is how you live from this place of sensing and feeling is am I getting that right absolutely you are spot on I think that my whole life here on the farm is deeply embedded in the seasons and when I talk

about the seasons the outer seasons um there are there are times where you can't do anything on the farm, on the land. Your crop, there's nothing you can do. We're in summer now and you have to, there's a certain time where you have to water the garden. Otherwise it gets really, really hot. And so in itself, the farm, the land tells you when to do what and what it needs when. And so same as my body with cycle awareness, my body tells me what it needs, when, and, and sort of, and that communication between my body and the soil brings about a beautiful balance that I heavily rely on because, you know, it's, it is such

a good balance for my mental state, for my physical wellbeing. And yeah, there's, there's a a really really beautiful and profound connection between practicing menstrual cycle awareness and practicing living sustainably or living in a sustainable way so specifically here on the farm we're practicing biodynamic farming or methods and um the way that we plant a farm. So maybe first I should just start. Yeah, tell us the story of the farm and how you came to be there and where you are and all of it. Yes, where am I in this big world?

So I'm in South Africa. So I'm in South Africa. I live in South Africa. I'm in South Africa. So I'm in South Africa. I live in South Africa. I'm South African. And we live in the garden route, in the garden route in the village called the Crags. The Crags gets its name from exactly that. It's the Crags, these big gigantic rocks.

And you can imagine us, sort of the whole village with the mountains, it's surrounded by these rocks and super lush, tall trees, indigenous trees around us, water that runs sort of in the creeks, in between the crags. It's at the coast. So I'm literally 10 minutes driving to the coast, to the ocean, which is, I wouldn't be anywhere else. It's the forest and ocean for me that I must have in my life. And we moved here three and a half years ago with my husband um and we really thought

so when we met you know we always he's Swiss um and I'm mentioning this because he is obsessed with like the mountains and the the the forest and nature and so when we met we used to talk about the sort of the future um environment that we would love to live in so like sort of like what do you dream where do you want to live um and then the covid came and we were quickly looking at each other like, okay, so do we think it's time now to actually find our sort of sanctuary because it feels like it is. So then during that time, we were like, okay, so let's actually start looking for a home for us.

And a home for us also meant farming. It meant having my medicinal herb garden it meant having mountains close by it meant living on the land with the soil and being a custodian of the land and really using it um primarily to grow food. And can I ask why? Why does a sanctuary include those things for you? Because it's healing. When we're immersed in nature, it doesn't matter what you're doing, and we all know this. And now imagine if you actually live in nature, how much more are you breathing into this, the air that heals you, the medicinal plants and trees that are around you that you don't even know, the soil that has the compost that is so rich, and how much that nourishes you with you just walking on it and so for us it was it was finding like a place place of healing and a place that people can come and visit and find peace and some sort of healing I think there's so many things that are happening out in the world and to have these small little like places where one can go to lay your head and really just lay on the grass and just observe the sky and just be an observer um yeah so that's that's why for us and have this always been

important for you like did you grow up in this kind of environment? Yes. So I grew up in a very small village, much smaller than where I live now, in a very small village, in a rural village in Willowvale. And where we grew up, it's very hilly. You know, imagine like rolling green hills with these mud huts on each hill or at the lower of the hill and we we grew our own food plants is medicine you don't have to go to the chemist because you just like walked around and like your uncle would say oh yeah did you know that this is great for digestion oh did you know that this is great for digestion oh did you know that this is actually great for your teeth so I kind of grew up like that and we

we fetched water from the rivers then when the rivers were beautiful and clean and nourished and relied heavily on the trees for you know wood for structures for our homes that we built so I do come from from that environment and also where where we respect nature so much I'm Xhosa I come from a tribe called Xhosa here in Southaga and we we believe very much in the spirit of nature so the forest has its own spirit and we call upon the spirit of the forest at certain times it's similar to the ocean so the ocean has its own um an element and you know and we respect it so much, so much that we have rituals where when you step into the forest, you ask if you could come in because you understand that there are spirits, there are people,

there are animals that live here too. And this is their home and we are sort of co-living together so yeah beautiful thank you it's great to hear to know where this began okay so you're where you are it was covid you decided you wanted to find your land you knew it needed to have space for you to grow for your medicinal herbs for food yeah um so then we moved down to the garden root because then we're in in a city the more we got in the side the more like lush it got and the ocean was here and I was definitely feeling like yes this is definitely our home and beautifully the home that we found here is a really reasonably like uh not a big farm but it's it's it's it has a good size like not a big farm but it's

it has a good size it's like homesteading and the previous owners that lived here already started like permaculture and farming organic way of living and the sense that you get

when you are here is very feminine it's very yeah very healing and it really it fitted then we continued then with with our permaculture practices and what we've just added now is more biodynamic ways of farming yeah yeah and for those who don't know what biodynamic farming is I was lucky I got to learn about it just when I was at uni I found this wonderful um wild guy he had long scraggly white beard and long white hair and he kind of just looked like he'd just been uprooted from the earth he looked like kind of like a wild root vegetable himself and he I went to his classes and he taught us about organic growing and biodynamic growing. And I was so grateful to him for showing me at a young age how to be in communion and in relationship with the land when it comes to growing.

Because obviously on our earth, most of the food is grown in an opposite way, in a monoculture way. Yeah. So could you just walk us into biodynamics just a brief one a brief intro yeah so briefly if I could tell you when you think of biodynamic farming you're thinking of your farm as a living organism I think this is really straight on you thinking the way what you. So originally it's it's it's started by Rudolf Steiner. And if you follow him and his ways of teaching, it's the understanding that the the farm is it works in a circular motion. So it closes the loopholes. It considers biodynamic farming is really big on understanding the elements.

And when I talk about elements, we're talking about the sun, we're talking about the cosmetics, we're talking about what's on the farm. So that's your kettle, cattle. We're talking about it involves the human who is planting. It also involves like the sun and where everything is positioned when you're planting to optimize the time, to optimize also for the plant that you're trying to grow, the way that I understand it is just about thinking about the farm as a living organism, that it has a belly to digest, which would be then where the compost area is. I love that. It has like a head and where the, you know, the thinking goes into it. And that you could say is the human because you are the

human of that. It's got its feet, it's got the feet, which is would be where the gate is. And basically, all the plants that you have, and the humans and the animals, and the herbs that are on here, the idea is that they communicate with each other it's like a river that meets another sort of small little river that meets another that and that continues to flow and flow and go and so I think in short is yeah biodynamic yeah way of farming wow so you're a biodynamic you're doing biodynamic farming as a cycle aware woman so you're doing this circular way of of harmoniously creating food and taking care of yourself and all of the life around you and and how so how do you notice what connections do you notice between your like inner ecology as you tend to and follow

it and then your approach to the outer ecology big question it is and it's it's a question I think I've been playing around with because it's so hard for me not to notice the similarities between living sustainably on a farm and practicing biodynamic skills or methods and also practicing cycle awareness. Because if you think about it, biodynamic farming, or let's just say maybe farming in general, it's more than just planting a potato. It's a holistic experience. So it's about evaluating, understanding the soil that you're working with. If the soil is not right, chances are your potato is not going to be, you know, it's not going to come

out the way that you want it to. If it rains too much, you might harvest, but it's not going to be the same harvest on a day when it didn't rain so much. And so when I think about menstrual cycle awareness, it's a holistic experience. Psychological, it's a physical, it's an emotional, it's an environmental experience too. So the very same way that I can observe the soil and understand what the result will be of this tree, potato, whatever I'm planting. It's the same way that I know if I'm stressed, I kind of know what to expect of my cycle. The environment that I'm in influences immensely my cycle.

And so practicing menstrual cycle awareness for me is so like intertwined with how I live my life here on the farm. It's the way that I observe my emotions through each phase of my cycle is the same way I observe what is growing in each outer season in my garden. I cannot be trying to plant things in winter in the garden. Not a chance. It's not happening. Like things are dying. You walk, I walk through my garden in winter, and I'm almost sometimes a bit depressed because I'm like, where is everything? My mum gets like that too. Like she gets like, so there's nothing growing because she grows flowers. And my dad, whenever I go visit my dad, he goes to show me

the compost. You know, I've been raised in by these gardeners and my mum, yeah, she gets sad because there's no colour and, and she, she knows how to hold the tension she's 75 now so she's done it for many years but I see her and then as the spring comes it's like this child like joy comes out she starts getting her hands in the soil again and yeah absolutely I absolutely feel your mom and the compost I feel like this is exactly me I'm so proud of the compost we made I know it's not one of the most satisfying things in life compost honestly yeah it's an achievement it's yes it truly is and so if I go in my garden in winter and I observe that everything has died down I can't force things now to wake up it's not going to happen it It helps me, let me say it this way, in practicing menstrual cycle awareness in my winter, in

a winter as well. Listen, I'm here now. I am menstruating. It's my bleed time. I need to take it slow. It's not even a choice. Then my body is telling me to take things slow. And there's nothing I can do about that.

And there is no use for me to swim against the current. So when I look at the soil, I consider like the soil as a body, my body. So if my body is not right, if I'm stressed, if I'm drinking alcohol more than usual, I know what's going to happen. Not going to sleep well. So the soil needs to be healthy. It needs to be healed for it to have crops that will heal you. And it's the same as with my body. My body needs to be well in order for my cycle to flow well and also for my mental health.

Mentally, thank goodness we have cycle awareness. Thank goodness we have this rhythm that can tell us this is the time for this and this is the time for that. If I practice mental cycle awareness, I'm following a natural rhythm, my own natural rhythm. And immediately in my mind, I'm living sustainably. I am practicing sustainability in a sense with my body.

Because if you think about it, like the seasons help you with balance. Being able to rest when it's winter and not plant brings about balance so that you can look forward and prepare for the next phase. What we're talking about here is inhabiting a different consciousness, a cyclical consciousness. And that when we practice cycle awareness, what we're doing is we're restoring. Tell me what you think about this. It feels like we're restoring the cyclical conscious that's happening in the rest of life back into the human world. When I was getting ready for the cyclical business course, I just thought, I'm just going to research how much of life on earth is human because I didn't know what the what the percentages were and it's 0.01 percent of life on earth is human 99.9 percent

of life it is not human and the 99.9 percent of life that isn't human is cyclical it's seasonal it ebbs and it flows like as you know because you're living right there in it all the time and it feels like with cycle awareness what we're doing is leaning into that cyclical intelligence and injecting it back into our or infusing it i should say back into our human culture it makes me think of what's happening in i think it's in Dubai at the moment the COP 28 conference about the climate crisis you know global leaders coming together yeah yeah I'm remembering my own time as an environmental activist where I was pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing and not resting and not resting and not resting from this sense of urgency

you know yes action must be taken yes policies need to change yes there is so much to be done and I wonder how much cyclical consciousness there is at COP28 right now and well there are I know there are a lot of indigenous leaders and teachers there. So I'm so grateful for the cyclical consciousness that they will be infusing into the event. But imagine, imagine if our leaders were inside this consciousness, you know. Yeah, exactly. You know, as you're speaking, Sophie, I just had this vision of this conference that's happening right now where where someone would open or lead them into coming in depth actually before they start coming in understanding we're in depth with the season that they are experiencing right now and how that season feels inside of them do you know what I

mean yeah and I and I totally understand where you coming from in what you're saying that it was a it was a lot of do do do and a lot of action because it's that that's that passion and that sense of urgency that you you just kind of want everyone to understand the the importance of this but also the way that it's running might not you know be as sustainable because obviously you know it's it's going faster it burnt me out totally it burnt me out totally I had to stop yeah which happens to so many activists I tell you that when we moved here I was so passionate about coming here and And before we moved here, I had so many ideas. Finally, we have a piece of land that we can work and that we can, you know, be in communion with. And it was beautiful. And the first year when we were here, the amount of stress I had, I'd never ever had before in my life. And I was shocked at myself.

And it actually had built up and built up to now. And I think we mentioned it earlier that, well, I mentioned it earlier that I'm in a phase right now where I'm being extra slow. Because the last, you know, a few years, especially specifically the first year when I was on the farm, there were so many things that I wanted to do, so many ideas. Even planting all the trees that we have was such a, you know, do, do, do, do, do, and forgetting and to breathe and to really enjoy

and really embody what you visually are seeing. You know, right now I'm seeing these trees swaying and it invites me to sway in any direction and it feels much more in tune and it feels right. You can look at the environment in that way and look at nature in that way and actually in that moment allow nature to teach me something or allow nature to remind me of something. As I mentioned earlier, Luzola is a graduate of our menstruality leadership program

and after our conversation I asked her a little bit about her experience of the program so I'm just going to share a snippet from that here first a little bit about the program so the Red School Menstruality Leadership Program is it's an immersive training for teachers, healers, artists, creatives, nurturers, culture shifters of all kinds who want to embody a radically new approach to leadership that's based on a cyclical model of development and rooted in your own lived experiences of the menstrual cycle. It's the only comprehensive training of its kind in the world and as a participant you'll join a powerful community of change makers exploring and developing this exciting new discipline of menstruality. A discipline that's set to change the way we

approach our well-being at all levels of personal and professional development creative and spiritual life over the coming years if you're interested in joining us for this year's menstruality leadership program we're starting in march a wonderful circle of people is forming for the course we would love to have you with us you can find out about it at menstrualityleadership.com. And we have a special early bird price that's available until midnight on the 1st of February. So you can find out about it at menstrualityleadership.com. Every time I'm challenged, I always go back to the MLP course. There are so many things in each module that help and support me even today. So one of the things is the confidence to step into me.

You know, I come from an African background, living in South Africa. We have our own ways of doing things, traditions and all this. And so coming into a space that has the kind of intimate information that Alexander and Shani so generously share and, you know, where they share from both of

them from their warmth to the heart to the throat and to us and you can feel it and so being you know in my course immediately that insecurity of there's a difference or like I'm having to catch up you know in my first I think this the first week I was so nervous starting my course my husband was nervous I think my dogs were nervous my cat everyone was nervous for me and after the first call I cried I cried because the welcoming that I felt I had this image in the first meditation that we did of myself standing on a cliff and my arms are reaching out and I'm about to jump or fly, but I am not scared. In fact, I'm excited that finally I think I'm going to fly. So it's been really, really powerful for me. The self-development in the course was immense. You know, it was immense I'm so grateful for cycle awareness in this moment because it's a I mean it's a messy

ride it's not clear it's full of nuance it's full of paradox but the paradox here of that you know can our cycle awareness teach us how to take action from a rested place or teach us how to be with the truth of what's needed in each moment and sometimes that's action sometimes that's rest and when we rest can we can cycle awareness you know can our menstrual rest time actually help us to fully drop even when things are urgent and there's a lot of privilege in that statement because for a lot of people that they don't have the capacity to drop because of all the responsibilities of their lives or because of the structures of our world but yeah I'm just with I'm with this what feels like a deeper truth through all of this which is that the consciousness that's in nature is the consciousness that's in us when we embrace our cyclicity and it's from that

consciousness that sustainable solutions can arise. Absolutely. And the juggling is not working for us anymore. And also in the resting, not to feel guilty, you know? Yes. Because the crops also rest. Right. But don't say, you know, the soil also rests. Yes.

It's our birthright. It's our birthright. And we have the permission. Yeah, it's a lot of unlearning. It's a lot of unfolding. And I love what you said, Sophie, that it is a privilege. And I want to say that it's true. It is such a privilege to be able to to even have

these thoughts you know to have space this is what I mean to have space for these thoughts yes what I learn about the farm is that food that I grow is as nourishing as the soil is and it it will nourish my body my and it will nourish then in turn my mind and the way that i think is 100 influenced by what i eat so the soil the soil is making our brains and our brains are where our thoughts arise from absolutely I know I mean these are the kinds of things I sit with Sophie I think my little brain is being blown there's also a thread here which feels important which is around our sense of belonging that everything in nature it seems to have its own innate sense of belonging like you said the soil is resting everything has its place everything's in its place everything is working in harmony and then we humans are often often feel very far away from

that sense of belonging it's either like shows up as a sense of I just thought it was all going to be more beautiful than this or you know a sense of who am I to be doing what I'm doing you know this imposter syndrome it just comes out in so many ways and what I'm feeling is that you are knowing your belonging as a child of this earth as part of this not as some human creature separate from it but as part of this this weaving yeah absolutely next door to our farm there's a forest a big forest and in the forest um are baboons so baboons are like bigger monkeys and um they sometimes they come on the farm obviously they can smell when the apples are ready and they want to have some apples and so there's the there's a very interesting dynamic and relationship between us

and the baboons and so because it's it's like it's it's really it's like the the jungle it's like who gets to what first you know you know it's like you know you do is do we do we get the apples first or do the baboons get to the apples first so but what's interesting is that when we when we walk into the forest and you can hear the baboons and I start saying you know I belong here I am part of of here this is also a home for me um the the kind of relationship that i will have or encounter that i'll have with the baboon will be much more at ease much more like relaxed and you know and and and for me i mean maybe it's just what i believe it's just like the kind of energy that you have in nature really influences the kind of response and what you receive in that moment yeah that totally makes sense how has I'm curious to hear about how your practice

of well your practice of slowing down currently your ongoing practice of slowing down but also particularly slowing down when you bleed like what how menstruation has informed this way of living for you or how yeah what your bleed has shown you about all of these different things that we've been speaking about I think my bleed has shown me two things. There are two different things that are happening in my mind and in my body. And so when I'm bleeding, I really need to rest. And it's taken me time to really invite my mind to this slowing down and it's taken me years I'm in my third year now to allow my mind to settle and surrender as as well as my body is and so yeah my practice when I'm bleeding I would be laying in this room that has a lot of light

and I like to watch the nature my ideal day would be the whole day depending on what the baboons are doing right depending because if the baboon if I see a baboon from this window then it's a problem because it really does interrupt because then I'm like shoot I need to go call someone where the dog yeah so so I think my practice does involve a lot of surrender and yeah my menstruation has been like my biggest teacher because I'm I'm an Aries and I can be you know you know up there and and so over the years I've learned that grounding is like home for me I need grounding this is why I live here I need to be grounded in order for anything to grow I need the anchor for for me to be fulfilled for me to feel safe and so when I'm bleeding at menstruation if I can ground myself I'll be able

to explore yeah I'm really with you on that journey I mean it's like 13 years that I've been tracking my cycle and still working with my mind which is often still going very fast when I start to bleed and just corralling supporting it it, gently easing it to slow down. Like back to the TRE that you mentioned at the beginning. Yes. It's really helping me at the moment. I'm doing TRE too, myself. Yay! It's like a bird. Having learned about it ages ago and just never having done it and my body,

well, it's, it's loving loving it but it's such a mysterious process it is the mind really has nothing to do um so for those of you listening who don't know about this tre stands for trauma intention releasing exercises and it was developed by david basselli um and it's been used all over the world um in quite um in areas where there's been used all over the world in quite in areas where there's been conflict, where there's been genocide in some of the world's worst and most difficult disasters and places to support people to move trauma through their body, to release it through through this gentle sort of natural shaking yeah and it's just been really wonderful to let my to feel the intelligence of my body moving the this old just feels like old stuff that old tension trauma patterns and my mind doesn't know what doesn't know what to do with it but I sense it's a real key for me to being a for me to be able to slow down and surrender more in my bleed but also in my life in general because this sense of fear that I have that is residual there from difficult things that

have happened in my past hopefully this could be one of the things that helps that to slowly like unlock and open so that when surrender is calling me I can allow myself to follow it rather than tense up out of fear does that resonate for you absolutely so so so deeply and it really is helping me to really slow down and I've tried different practices but my mind all of our minds are so clever that as soon as you get into an uncomfortable situation your mind will always try to get you out of that when you try to get yourself out of it and so to find a practice now and at the tre where i actually have no control over the tremble that is happening or the shaking that is happening in my body, but there is an emotion that is being released. need to surrender and slow down and to match the connection or the yearning or the longing that I have to slow down to be more at ease to yeah to rest in the knowing that all is well as it is yeah because just like the tension is released through the body through

the trauma releasing exercises and it's got nothing to do with the mind the cycle is also holding us isn't it it's holding us through this building up and then breaking down process every month whether our minds like it or not there's no control that our minds have over that process just like there's no real control that we have over the natural world I mean humans have we've done a good job of trying to control our natural world and have we've taken it to the point of that we've taken it now and we know it's time for this yeah this different kind of cyclical consciousness where well everything we've said already we allow nature's wisdom to lead to lead the lead yeah I'd love to to call on your

visionary capacities and now knowing that you're an Aries I'm I'm even more excited for this fire woman living where you live and you know tending to the land and your medicinal herbs and being with your your body and being with the seasons inside and outside from that place what do you see as possible for us as humans living on our earth like what what do you what can you see for the future particularly if we are able to embrace this cyclical consciousness what could become possible deep healing is the first thing that comes to mind for all of us. I think that nature is here and the many things that we can learn about nature is, for example, is like a tree that stands regardless of what's happening. Tree will stand for many years and it'll continue to heal the soil it'll continue to protect us from

the sun or create shade for the other herbs that are underneath it continuously gives continuously continuously provides and I think what we can learn through observing nature could be deeply healing for all of us and I think the way that I envision the world is really like learning by observing not trying to fix nature or trying to fix or tame more it is merely to observe and see and feel how that feels inside of you what what that does to you yeah so I think observing most importantly there are people back back in my village that are observers. Their job is to observe. And it is a huge role and responsibility. And to be able to just spend months observing something and then being able to then report on what it is that you've observed.

It's a beautiful thing. And I think we shouldn't underestimate that. And so observing nature, I know it sounds very, such a simple thing, and it is a simple thing, but then understanding what it does in your body, in your system, is another thing. Well, it's a simple thing that we don't tend to do. No. You do. Thank you. another thing well it's a simple thing that we don't tend to do no you do thank you thank you

for observing and for sharing observations with us yeah this has been beautiful there has been that thread I'm glad that we brought it back to that thread of observation because you've brought that in the presence the observing the being with that is a huge part of the medicine here thank you Lizardo it's been such a joy I feel I feel some of that healing in me from this conversation and I hope our listeners do as well if if people would like to get in touch with you and find out more about you and your work your herbs but also your cycle coaching um could you tell us how we could get in touch with you yeah yes of course sophie so um people can get in touch with me on instagram i think it's wombflow it's actually wombflow all across so on facebook it's wombflow sa on instagram it's wombflow

at sa i want to say and um um in the next next year in January I'm releasing a new website that will have all my coaching offers and my yeah my embodiment my menstrual cycle awareness embodiment practices which I'm so excited to share and also my herbs so as you know have you heard a little bit I grow organic medicinal herbs that help with our menstrual pain that really support us in each phase of the season obviously that will be with the people that are here in South Africa um so that also offering is coming on my new website in January. But for now, I think Instagram and Facebook, which with being a warm flow essay. Thank you so much.

It's been wonderful to be with you. Thank you so much, Sophie. Thank you so much. Truly appreciate this chat. It's really awakened. Thank you for joining us all the way to the end here. I really loved that conversation with Lizana, particularly coming from the environment. awakened thank you for joining us all the way really grateful for all the work that you do that conversation with truly are amazing and coming from the environmental activism background

that i've come from really truly an honor it's so exciting to feel the potential cycle awareness when it comes to turning things around on our earth i'd love to hear from you. We want to make sure that this podcast is a conversation between us and you. We want to know what you want us to be talking about, who you'd love us to be talking to. So you can always reach out to me at sophieatredschool.net. I would absolutely love to hear from you. And as I mentioned earlier, our menstruality leadership program is coming up. We're going to be starting in march there's a special early bird price that's ending on the 1st of february if you're interested come over to menstrualityleadership.com and find out all about the curriculum all about the different elements

of the training the different maps that you'll explore and you can always write to us at info at redscore.net with your questions there are scholarship places available for people from marginalized communities you can find out all about the scholarships at menstrualityleadership.com so that's it for this week i'll be with you again on tuesday for the final installment of the Wild Power series. So until then, keep living life according to your own brilliant rhythm.