The Menstruality Podcast - 131: 100 Ways that Cycle Awareness Transforms Your Life: Part Two (Alexandra & Sjanie)

Episode Date: February 1, 2024

From finding oneself again through perimenopause, to helping to move through depression, to transforming communication with loved ones, today we’re exploring real life stories of how menstrual cycle awareness has changed the lives of our listeners. We explore:How discovering cycle awareness supported Melanie to move through a bout of severe depression to a sense of deep alignment with her true self.Erin’s journey from feeling lost in perimenopause to returning home to herself, making sense of the process and finding grounded clarity.How cycle awareness has brought Rebecca back into a sense of belonging to the earth, and it was such a life-changing realization (and a gift) that she’s made it her life's work.---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.hardy

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.

This is part two of our conversation about how cycle awareness can change everything. And we're sharing stories from our listeners. We hear from Melanie for her discovering cycle awareness, supported her to move through a bout of severe depression back to a sense of deep alignment with her true self. It's a beautiful story. We hear from Erin who went from feeling lost as many do during her perimenopause journey to returning home to herself, making sense of the process that she was in and finding a sense of grounded clarity through cycle awareness.

And we also hear from Rebecca whose cycle awareness practice brought her back to a sense of belonging to the earth and it was such a life-changing realization for her and a gift that she's actually made it her life work. Through sharing these stories, we also add to our list of ways that cycle awareness transforms your life, and I'm pretty sure we get to 100 by the end. So let's get started with part two of our conversation with Alexandra and Sharni about how cycle awareness can transform our lives. Well, let's start with our cycle check-in. I feel like we might be spanning quite a few seasons of the cycle here because Sharni, I'm pretty sure you're

in a springy and I'm in a summer and Alexandra, I feel like the moon might be starting to wane now, but have I got that right? are you to that just come into the last quarter of the moon it's interesting I've just been a bit tired this week lower in energy and I'm a bit sleepy this morning but it was so funny I haven't felt this for a while but such irritation came up with little things that weren't working for me and it was like you know it's the harmless floss last night the container didn't work I went fuck you I don't care and sort of flung it away and I've now lost the top I was like well fuck you sorry I shouldn't begin a podcast. Fuck you.

I stormed off and I have no idea. I now don't have a functioning floss thing. Do I care? No. Yes, the city. It's so funny because it's so relatable. I mean, it might not be the floss. It might be something else.

But have we all been there? Yes. It's the Tupperware for all the containers falling out the cupboard. Anyway, yes. So it's so interesting. You know, I've got this sleepiness in my head. It's got a sort of sleepiness. But I've got inside me this sort of inner yumminess because I just get so excited about this work and we're gearing up for our uh you know menstruality leadership program in March and you know applications are coming in

and I'm reading that I'm going oh my god this is so exciting this is just so exciting reading this you know the potential of this work where how people are getting it and what they're visualizing about it and I'm going oh my god yes yes and you know we're about to enter into a new conversation with our current grads about ongoing work and I'm just salivating at the thought of being able to do this deeper work so yeah I was uh you know the shower is a good test of where things are at. And I was just getting so excited in the shower. Yeah, I'm relating.

Well, the piece I'm relating to, Alexandra, and this obviously is because you and I are in this creative partnership together, I'm really relating to the kind of creative cycle that we're in, which is like you, I am feeling so turned on by this work. The stories that people share with us about how learning about cycle awareness has transformed them. And the way people are being touched by menstruality. I mean, I'm just, I'm so lit up by it. We had such a good interview with someone yesterday. And, you know, through the conversation, just hearing, she just read Wild Power and just hearing how the work had landed with her and what it meant to her in her life so yes Alexandra like you I'm just

feeling so so on fire with this work and so looking forward to really diving in with people because that's where it comes alive, you know, in our workshops, in our events. It's so my happy place. So, yes, I've got that layer going on, which is really informing me. And then in my menstrual cycle, I'm day eight, which has a in a spring come in a summer quality for me. My cycles, I tend to ovulate around day 10 or 11. So I'm, I'm definitely feeling that smooth with me, which I'm really enjoying the combination

today. I feel so in my heart and so good about myself, what we're doing what's possible for the world you know I'm really in the hope stream um yeah the stream of possibility which I'm loving I'm just a bit ahead of you then because I reckon I'm going to ovulate tomorrow or the next day. It's day 14. And I get a specific kind of pain when I'm ovulating, which is helpful in a way. It's not intense, but it just shows me that I'm ovulating. And I was just laughing to myself, thinking about how it's like the tone of the day is really around sensuality and sexuality for me. And this rising up of sexual energy. Because I was in the shower this morning, just, you know, just like digging myself. Just being like, feeling pleasure in my body, enjoying the water.

And I've just started watching Sex Education on Netflix. Which people have been recommending to me forever. And I can tell, ah, is a good ovulation watching just everyone talking about sex so I'm enjoying that yeah and I and here we are to take to do a part two of our conversation about 100 ways that menstrual cycle awareness changes your life and we're actually going to look at it through the lens of some stories that came in from our listeners. I'm so grateful for everyone that wrote in but before we start maybe we can just recap a little of some of the some of the 100 ways that we came up with last time.

So menstrual cycle awareness helps us to show up exactly as we are without masking, without bending ourselves out of shape to fit into some ideal outside of us. It benefits our friends, our families, our communities and actually there's a story that we'll share more about that later. It walks us home to our own natural rhythms ways of moving through the world our energy it cultivates presence i feel like you two have called it the ultimate mindfulness practice for for women and people who menstruate before right yeah um it keeps us close to what really matters to us it's an innate self-esteem builder i'm definitely experiencing that on my day 14 it gives us permission to do nothing when we menstruate

and it prepares us for menopause there were more but that they're some of the ones that we touched so if you haven't listened our listeners if you haven't listened to the first one you can go back and listen to that 100 ways that menstrual cycle awareness changes your life or transforms your life part one so yeah i wonder if we can start looking through the lens of the stories that we've come in and tease out some more some more ways that it transforms your life what do you think i think that's a super way in, actually. Yeah, yeah. This story came in from Clara that I absolutely love,

and I'm calling it from a sense of powerlessness or a lack of agency in the world to fighting the patriarchy. So mental cycle awareness helps us fight the patriarchy. And Clara said, I went through an intense period of a couple of months when I first read Wild Power and started listening to the podcast, during which I took a deep dive into cycle awareness and radical-ish rest during my bleeds. My almost four-year-old son now asks me things about my inner seasons. And it's become part of our household discourse about how we communicate with one another and when we give each other more room for forgiveness to me this feels like one of the most beautiful ways to fight the patriarchy one husband one son one household at a that is such an amazing story thank you Clara if you're listening

that is just how we envision things happening Shani that sort of you know individual families individual relationships and then the the spill on from that there were two words there that were really key for me in clara's story um communication and forgiveness i think menstrual cycle awareness radically enhances our capacity to communicate with everyone else in our lives because the place that we're coming from in us is a much more truthful clear place when we're in tune with who we are and how we're feeling that's it it's uh what i was thinking there was um it connects you to how you're actually feeling so you know yourself menstrual cycle awareness helps you to know yourself, to know what you're feeling. And it's that combination of actually truly experiencing yourself rather than trying to perform as an idea of yourself that is a game changer and then that other element of which you mentioned at the beginning of

confidence building you know that cycle awareness builds this growing self-esteem and for me within that is clarity about boundaries who I am and who I'm not you know and how that changes through the menstrual month. And it's that combination of forces that comes together where we are, we become unable to suppress ourselves. We have to speak. And the thing about menstrual cycle awareness is that because it's bringing you into alignment with yourself more when you're speaking strong stuff or challenging stuff um the more aligned you are the less kind of reactive you will come across and it's easier for people to receive it to hear what you're saying. And I particularly think of the premenstrual phase, that if you turn up in the premenstrual phase, just sort of ragged, which we all do a bit, actually, but if we don't clock that and go, hang on a minute, let me just gather myself here.

Because, of course, in the premenstrual phase there are all these uh stronger truth-speaking forces that want to come through and we haven't we can't suppress things in the same way because we're just more permeable and um and there's really powerful truths because we see and know things in a way we haven't done before but if we're not aligned with ourselves we actually won't be heard properly. And we may even be dismissed and seen as, you know, what's wrong with her or, you know, she's mad or all that crap. So it's this alignment that comes, that allows what needs, you know, allows us, that supports us in speaking, but also speaking in a way that can be received.

You know, you have a dignity in yourself. And when someone's speaking challenging stuff to me, but they're really holding themselves and they're valuing themselves, man, I grow, I sit up. I feel a little bit liberated, you know, even as they may be tearing strips off me. This thing of how menstrual cycle awareness grows our capacity for communication, I'm so grateful to you, Clara, for naming that because it's actually not something we've spoken about

specifically and so I want to just break down menstrual cycle awareness a little to into sort of what the components are that allow us to experience that kind of clarity of communication and everything alexandra has said there um has in a way illustrated it but to the how how how do we um access this power of communication through cycle awareness. And you both mentioned it there first and foremost is firstly, it's about actually knowing how we are feeling and what we are needing. And this aspect of menstrual cycle awareness is really the foundation for everything. And there are two things that I think really, really help with this. And they're both very

simple, but don't underestimate the power of them. The first is what we call building body literacy through menstrual cycle awareness, which is paying attention to the physical signs and physical changes that happen in your body as you go through the menstrual month. It's this attunement to the ground of the menstrual cycle, which is your body, which is the ground of you and the ground of your being. So learning things like fertility awareness, which is that practice of like tracking mucus and the position of your cervix and when you're ovulating, et cetera, gives you something very solid to hold onto that you can rest in when you are checking in with more emotional kind of psychological, spiritual aspects of what you're experiencing. It's such a foundation and it's so

safe making to have that knowledge about yourself. So that's the one piece. The other piece of body literacy is this practice of interception, which is so important when you want to know how you are doing is to actually tune into your body, to really start with your body and the sensations in your body, the weight of your body, how you're experiencing yourself on the inside. And this really opens the door to you in a very honest, real way, knowing how you're doing. Kind of really helps you to illuminate the kind of feeling state that you're in. And this is so important for communication, as we've all said. And then the next piece which Alexandra spoke to is being able to speak from that place from the truth of how you are again it really takes being at home in oneself as Alexandra said

this thing of alignment which is everything to do with you embodying the place you're in you resting and inhabiting the feeling, the state, the experience that you're having in a very real way. And then the power you wield is generative. It's not destructive. It becomes creative power. So yeah, those pieces are really important when it comes to cycle awareness and there's the making it right as well whatever we're feeling whatever we're experiencing cycle awareness helps me to make that right true good yes i'm quick to get angry on day 23. And yes, that is right. You know, what I do with that, you know, then becomes what happens.

But, you know, it's okay that I'm angry. It's that fundamental okayness. Yes. And in terms of fighting the patriarchy, that I think, I can't remember who said it, but that feeling of we can be made to feel like we're mad when there's a huge charge coming through our bodies of rage or anger. And one of the tools of the patriarchy has been to call that hysterical, make that wrong, make that mad and bad. And yeah, for me, premenstrstrually menstrual cycle awareness helps me to hold

that charge like you said alessandra sit into it and speak from from a place of power which contains wildness but not from a place of chaos and that's when we can do that in terms of dismantling the patriarchal structures around us that's the kind of power and ground that we need. Yeah, anyway, that's a whole other conversation that I'd love to have. How menstrual cycle awareness dismantles the patriarchy. So the second word I really heard in Clara's share was forgiveness. That word forgiveness is beautiful.

And what I hear in that word forgiveness is beautiful. And what I hear in that word forgiveness is kindness, actually. Kindness, giving each other the benefit of the doubt, you know. It's like, it's kindness. When we're, you know, I'm just thinking when we're in the premenstruum and getting close to bleeding, yeah, it's so easy to lose it when there's a lot of pressure on. And if you're a mum of a young one and, you know, their needs don't stop, but your needs are now amplified many fold over just before bleeding. And you just find you lose it with your child.

I mean, what parent doesn't feel guilt afterwards for just, you know, blowing their stack or whatever with their child? And to bring that kind of kindness to oneself is, and forgiveness, but also of in relationships and partnerships, what I'm hearing is they're recognising each other's vulnerability. So her partner's obviously recognising her vulnerable times, but because she's sensitive to her own vulnerability, she will be more sensitive to her partner's vulnerabilities and more responsive.

So there's more responsiveness in the system around vulnerable times. There's more awareness of and responsiveness to. And forgiveness is just such a beautiful energy in a relationship because we're human after all so the second story that i'd like to bring in i'm calling from uprooted to belonging to earth it's from rebecca so she says cycle awareness has brought me back into a sense of belonging to the earth it's helped me see how the seasonal mirrors of our menstrual cycle phases aren't just a mirror but evidence that I am nature the same cycles that sustain life in our

universe are present in me and sustain me too. It helped me see how the parts of me as a woman and menstruator have been so dismissed by our culture and also the same parts of the earth have been exiled and it helped me see that I can practice as a small scale starting with my body the beautiful regenerative future I envision just by honoring my own cyclical nature. Boom. So beautiful. So beautiful. Thank you so much, Rebecca. This word, belonging to the earth, my God, that almost makes me want to cry. And I would really love just to speak, you know, for those of you who are listening and thinking, oh, wow, yeah,

I'd love to feel that belonging. I just want to remind you all that there's this invitation every month at menstruation to drop into an experience that I can only call, from my own experience of it, belonging, this feeling of rooting into myself and recognizing oh i have a place i belong my life i i am wanted i am wanted it was tangible it was very real so you know i'm just thinking of rebecca's story and how just the recognition of this seasonal rhythm in her mirroring the seasons of the year and knowing how the seasons of the year hold and carry us. She has experienced that phenomena with her cycle process overall. And I'm hoping, Rebecca, that you also were tasting each month

every time you bled. You do need to stop, by the way. You've got to follow. You've got to practice menstrual cycle awareness and listen to how your body is wanting to lead you into this sort of inner holy space, this inner temple, as we like to call menstruation. You're actually, the feelings and energies you

start to experience the closer you get to menstruation are actually preparing you to step into this place in order that you can remember again it is like a remembering a remembering each month oh Oh, I'm okay. Because I don't know about you. I always used to lose the plot somewhere through this monthly cycle. And I'd come back to registration and go, oh, yeah, all is sweet. It's good. It's good.

Yeah, it's, I mean, isn't this so wild i just really want to say this very kind of precisely and clearly this is the thing i hold most actually in all the work we do the thing i'm holding all the time is i want more and more women more and more menstruators to be able to experience this extraordinary um i was talking about it as a pot of gold earlier but this extra to have an experience of this uh this spiritual experience that's freely gifted to us each month when we stop at our bleed. Now, just take that in. You don't have to do anything other than the mighty task,

and it is a mighty task because of all our responsibilities, of the mighty task of downing tools and stepping away from mundane life. And this, of course, is what happens in all religious traditions. You know, they stop work and go to the temple, the church, the synagogue, the mosque. They step away from worldly stuff and they kind of offer themselves. We offer ourselves to the divine. Well, at menstruation, you get to have an experience of that

where your body gives it to you if you are able to just let go and you're feeling safe and you're not trying to hold a million things but you can actually drop all your agendas just let go and let menstruation work its magic this opens the door to that feeling of belonging. And I think that's just the greatest gift of all that our menstrual cycle awareness practice can give us. It's very, very, very precious. And imagine millions experiencing that month after month folks not a one-hit wonder imagine that how that would rewire everything rewired me that's what saved me I'm going to pause the podcast for a moment to invite you to save the date the 20th to the 22nd of February for a special three-day event that Alexandra and Sharni are hosting called the

Cyclical Wisdom Quest it's a three-day online event and it's for you if you want to embody the wisdom of life cycles and take your seat in a revolution that puts cyclical intelligence back at the centre of our lives. Over the three days, Alexandra and Shani will guide you through powerful processes which explore the hidden powers of the inner seasons of the menstrual cycle, though it's for you whether you have a menstrual cycle or not. You can work with the imprint of the inner seasons of the menstrual cycle though it's for you whether you have a menstrual cycle or not you can work with the imprint of the menstrual cycle if you don't have a cycle at the moment as your pathway home to health to creative fulfillment to belonging and so much more please join our email list at redschool.net to receive an invitation soon and we would love to have you with us for the cyclical wisdom quest Rebecca shared more in her email about how she's expanding extending this to earth activism and

she's created an organization called sister season she's doing amazing work and what I'm really present to is there are two elements to earth activism or working to meet these huge challenges we face the climate crisis one is we take we take outer action we plant trees we use renewable energy we change policy but the inner action is perhaps the thing that's really going to turn the key for us on earth is the consciousness shift from consume take extract to contribute sustain connect and i feel like what rebecca is pointing to is this coming home to sustainable ways of living within us seeing how the cycles are mirrored inside and outside and that creates a consciousness shift that turns us into the creatures who can keep humanity going on this beautiful earth about

was you know she's going to be fine but whether we can stay in partnership with her is in question right now. So this really turns me on back to my inner summer pleasure is to feel, you know, what cycle awareness is doing in terms of consciousness shift and the impact for our earth is, for me, just a totally reason enough to practice menstrual cycle awareness without

any of these other benefits yeah absolutely because in that you know i spoke you know what i was just saying there about this bringing you into a deep belonging like you're needed you know you're wanted you have a place it's what happening is, is you're experiencing an awakening to something bigger than your own ego driven demands, self wants. You're being awoken to your calling, as we like to say. So yeah, your awakening to your service a calling is serving your ego each month. And in that dismantling, you know, humility comes in and a recognition of something bigger than you is at work. But more than that, your sense of love for or want, desire to serve that is awoken through menstrual cycle awareness. I mean, isn't that wild? And I mean, it's so wild.

So there's that kind of big cosmic sort of calling awakening that happens every month. But also it's a freaking pot of gold for ideas too, you know, hot on the heels of, oh, this is my mission to save the world. This is what I have to go out and do. It's that hot on the heels of that comes all these creative ideas. Oh, yes, this. You know, ideas come for solutions to how we could approach something

or do something. I mean, it's like the universe talking to us and going, okay, go do that now. Now you've got to do that. Now sort out that. I mean, it's like the universe talking to us and go, okay, go do that. Now you've got to do that. Now sort out that. I mean, it's very precise, actually. You know, when you're emerged, it's that moment where you're emerging from menstruation that you get those marvelous sort of clear instructions, you from what you said there, Sophie, was that the shifting consciousness is really where the power lies

in terms of us doing what it takes to create a right and good relationship with this planet and with each other can i just say as well and um and i'm just thinking now how part of what menstruation does as well is it breaks the trance that we've been in yeah and um it's the collective trance that we're in that we're all we're born into and are all party to you know of domination of consumerism etc etc etc uh of separation and then what happens at menstruation is that gets dismantled when we stop and we can't we have this moment or these moments of of awakening to an entirely different reality. It's like the realm of possibility suddenly comes flooding in.

And now we're in contact with like a much larger vista of possibility. And I always think that menstruation is where we commune with the future. I often have that feeling of a possibility, a future possibility calling me, calling me to bring it into being through who I am and through my life and through my calling. And that's the kind of access that I just don't have in my everyday life. In my everyday life, I'm consumed by the trance. I'm consumed by the busyness. And I can only think in terms of what already exists. But at menstruation, suddenly I can think way beyond what I've ever known before and I feel that's where the solutions are coming from yeah that's where the solutions are coming from and as you said menstruation is

the key and I'm thinking back to Clara you know she said it was this radical ish because she's a mom of a little one but radical-ish rest at menstruation that woke her up to this forgiveness, new levels of communication. And I imagine that's been a big part of it for Rebecca too. Yeah. So for everyone listening, going, hmm, how? Start by 1% more rest at menstruation to open the door that opens the door that opens the door that opens the door that opens all the possibilities yeah okay two more stories to share this one I'm calling it from depression to alignment it's a beautiful very vulnerable story from Melanie and I'm so grateful that you've shared it. Melanie. So she says,

prior to starting cycle awareness, I was navigating a bout of severe depression. While many things contributed to my healing process, therapy, trauma healing, cycle awareness was the first step on my journey and my trusted ally through it all. It changed my life and I'm so incredibly grateful for it. Cycle awareness has truly become my greatest passion. I feel it quietly leading the way to a deeper alignment with my true self and calling. I have a deep respect and unshakable conviction in the truth of its power to bring women closer to themselves. A commitment to what feels in its own way radical to honour, trusting and going at the pace of my own rhythm, no longer resisting and fighting against the current.

Trusting and going at the pace of my own rhythm, no longer resisting and fighting against the current. You know, trusting and pacing my own rhythm, that's what turns the key for any kind of change. That's a really moving story, Melanie. To dare, because menstrual cycle awareness is the daring act of trusting and pacing yourself, your actual daily rhythm, your monthly rhythm. That's what menstrual cycle awareness is. Exactly. And, you know, there are two ways we can change things in our lives we can have a goal and we can like put in a lot of effort and work really hard towards changing something

in our lives and then there's this other way of changing which is a kind of change that comes from within us where we hold a particular intention and then we are changed through the process of cycle awareness and uh and as alexandra's saying the only way that can happen is if we really trust the pace of the change we trust how we're being moved moment by moment we let ourselves really be inside the process of change as it's happening and let as I think Melanie used the words let my cycle guide me and you let your cycle guide me um and you let your cycle guide you into that new place in yourself and um this is so like i really i want to say again this is futuristic stuff it's radical it's really radical you know letting ourselves be guided by this deeper intelligence, the cyclical wisdom. And voila. The healing that's available for us is extraordinary. Yeah. I mean, what you're

doing, you know, is actually just creating much more orderliness in your being, more coherence in your being. And more coherence means more energy. An incoherent system is a chaotic system where energy is not being utilized well, but coherence creates a kind of clearer channel. Suddenly, you know, there's flow happening in a way it couldn't flow before. And it's great, Melanie. It's so great to hear. I can hear in your words the fierceness, commitment. It's like this is the bedrock of all the other great, the container, the through line guiding you out of the hole. There's such reciprocity with the menstrual cycle.

You know, the more we commit, the more all in we are, the more we really show up for ourselves each day in our cycle the more the cycle generates the more we are held the more we receive the more healing happens it's so reciprocal and I just love that it's like if you really want to take it up a notch just commit commit deeper you know more um and Melanie's really a beautiful example of that yeah wow and committing deeper can look like so many different ways something that I've been doing just randomly occurred to me to check in every day in our graduate community space our circle space and I consider myself a very cycle aware person, but it's taken it to the next level to just have that discipline of, okay, check in, feel how I'm doing. How have I been today? What has that looked like? And then share a snapshot of it in the hive. Next level, I'm

closer to myself at that next level. So maybe there's a listening partnership that you could form, you know, those of you listening, or maybe there's a friend that you could say, hey, read Wild Power and get into it together. And then, you know, share messages back and forth with each other, you know, whatever it takes to take get that next level of commitment in your life. Yeah, and come and join our events, because that's a great place to connect with others who are doing this. And commitment is so much easier when we are in good company. Yeah, it really helps to feel others who are on the same path as us. Yeah. And also just to say, you know, the commitment piece is interesting because it can also really

look like holding true to oneself just a little bit more not forsaking oneself and um honoring one's own needs just a little bit more that's also commitment and um yeah there are yeah there are lots of ways we can go deeper that don't actually ask any more effort or any more time. Yeah, they're about coming closer in to ourselves. Yeah. Okay, final story now from Erin. I'm calling this from feeling lost in perimenopause, which we call the quickening here at

Red School, to grounded clarity from Erin. So she says, I was in the early months of understanding what perimenopause is and my place in that journey. After endless, often frantic research and making various lifestyle changes and attempt to regain that feeling of myself, I can say that the moment I began to take in the practice of menstrual cycle awareness, I immediately felt grounded again. Things started to make sense. As someone who has always felt in tune with myself on an emotional level, I realized that it had been quite a while since I had felt that same union with my body this has been an immense gift and I'm forever changed in how I see and walk through life thank you for leading the way I love that yeah lost and found yeah i always talk about the menstrual cycle as uh the umbilical cord to yourself

the line to yourself yes yeah or the menstrual cycle is yeah but you have to practice menstrual cycle awareness to experience that connection to yourself um And it's very interesting when you come into your, I'm assuming here, Erin, that you sort of, you're in your 40s somewhere now. I don't know where. But each decade of our lives brings a new texture or tone to our experience of our menstrual cycles and our experience of ourselves.

And the 40s is a very, there can be some quite strong changes that happen because, of course, whenever you come into a new decade, it's like, oh, God, I'm getting older. Only now you're coming into your 40s, like, jeez, I'm really getting older now. And now I can see menopause on the horizon. I couldn't see that before. So a lot of things get catalyzed.

And we may not have the same energy that we had, say, in our 20s. But, you know, through our 30s, we managed to carry the illusion that we're still in our 20s. Suddenly you come to your 40s, you go, oh, it really is different now. But there's a whole kind of negotiation that has to happen. And so there's sort of disturbance that comes up. There may be health symptoms, you know, cycle challenges that you hadn't had before. And really it's your body saying you're changing, you're coming into a new life phase.

But the common thread here is, of course, your practice of cycle awareness, because if you can keep to that practice of menstrual cycle awareness and you of course found it erin and that helped you to ground what it does the cycle awareness does it brings you into um the new it helps you to negotiate uh the new challenges you're encountering with yourself. And these challenges are meaningful. So, for instance, let's say you're getting more health challenges.

You're feeling, you know, premenstrual stuff going on or your cycle is getting shorter or something. And it's actually, it's your, it's the early warning system around your health. It's one of the vital, you know, it's called the fifth vital sign now, the menstrual cycle. It's giving us feedback. So it's like saying, oh, I've got to up my game now around my health. You know, my self-care has to be different. So you're getting instruction about that.

But you'll also have big existential questions for sure coming up you know what what am i about who am i what's you know all the usual stuff and um and it's really important to meet that and i would really encourage you not to sort of cast it into the box of menopause which that term perimenopause can do a little, I think, sometimes. Well, that's my concern. But rather to see this as a really, how can I put it? You're being, it's like a little sort of graduation moment into another level of maturity in yourself. And these challenges, if you can meet these challenges, what you're really doing is you're just setting yourself up so well for the great spiritual initiation that menopause is holding. So it's so great, Erin, to hear how you have found cycle awareness because just tracking your cycle each month is going to just keep this intimacy with yourself, but also an intimacy with your physical energy levels, health.

You know, this is so crucial coming towards menopause because you just don't want to turn up at menopause stressed and exhausted. It's not a good recipe um so you're you're you're keeping yourself rooted in yourself and it's almost like menopause is um is preparing you it's like these challenges are coming i always think menopause is kind of sending instructions down the line going get your act together darling face this attend to that you know don't run away from that you want to get all that in order because i've got a beauty to deliver to you at menopause but

i need you lined up sorted out you know connect to yourself rooted into yourself and then we can do some great business at menopause if menopause was speaking that's what it would say and cycle awareness is your means the voice of menopause has spoken to alexandra pope today i would actually like to add something more there which is your 40s cycle awareness brings you into a really great stream of feeling like you're on the top of your game. It's like you're getting yourself. It isn't all about, and this is part of preparing for menopause, but it isn't all about just sorting yourself out so you'll have a good deal of menopause.

It's actually your 40s are you really realizing something about yourself. It's so important. It's about about yourself. It's so important. It's about healthy ego. It's about mastery. It's feeling like, yeah, I know who I am. And cycle awareness is delivering you to that, helping you to channel that, carry that. Yeah, it's very powerful. Your 40s are fabulous.

I love everything you're saying alexandra and you you've actually drawn out another benefit of cycle awareness well you've drawn out a few there you know cycle awareness prepares you for menopause being one of them but the other is that um throughout our lives when we're practicing menstrual cycle awareness each inner season is tutoring us and helping us to develop the skills capacities and powers needed for certain life stages and our experience of the inner autumn in this example every month is tutoring us in what's needed to meet the quickening, to meet the 40s, to meet the autumn of your menstruating years. So you get practice every month in how to grow your capacity for these different life stages. And just like the inner winter is teaching you how to meet

the great initiation of menopause, or indeed, any big life initiation, like motherhood is another one. So the inner winter is your kind of training ground, and it's growing you and preparing you for that. So you really are being prepared through menstrual cycle awareness for what's to come. And it's your own inner teacher, you know. And it's not just knowledge you're gaining. It's skill. You need that skill to meet what comes so that's a very beautiful thing to appreciate about cycle awareness so beautiful and you've named menopause and motherhood there but i'm also thinking of

someone in our community who's really working deeply with cycle awareness through a very deep grieving process after a loss um you know it can support with that kind of initiation supported me through infertility maybe it's preparing us for the big one right yeah yeah yeah the big d the big one that's coming for us all yeah a great place to wrap up this conversation on death well it's the natural ending no thank you too I feel like we must have gone past gone way past 100 there but there'd still be so many more to name and I just want to share an invitation for anyone

listening who's feeling inspired by this and wants to take the next level of commitment deepen their practice of cycle awareness to come to our cyclical wisdom quest so it's happening on February the 20th to the 22nd three-day event with Alexander and Sharni and you can register register to join us at redschool.net forward slash quest wow that's it then until next time thank you you two a delight Lovely. Thanks, Sophie. Hey, thank you for listening all the way through to the end today. If you have a story that you'd like to share about how your practice of cycle awareness has changed things for you, whether that's with your health, with your relationships, with your creative process, with your work, your sense of your calling and purpose, whatever it is, we would love to hear from you. I think sharing these real life

stories is so supportive for people at all points of their cycle awareness journey, especially when we're living in a world which really doesn't honour this cyclical wisdom yet, more and more it does. So please email me at sophie at redschool.net I always love hearing from you and that's it for this week and I'll be with you again next week and until then keep living life according to your own brilliant rhythm