The Menstruality Podcast - 142. Your Womb, Your Menstrual Cycle and Expressing Your Truth (Alycia Camacho)

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

How easy do you find it to express your truth? On the podcast today, we’re exploring the connection between the womb and the voice, why so many of us feel blocked in our expression, and how we can literally talk and sing our way back to our power, so that we can use our voices to create the world we want for ourselves and future generations.Our guest is Alycia Camacho - a spoken word artist who is passionate about supporting people to activate their own voices. She’s also a Hormonal Health Coach and the founder of Embracing Cycles and has taken a long, challenging and ultimately liberating healing journey with emotionally and physically painful cycles for the past decade.Alycia shares what has supported her to transform from being the shy kid who didn’t believe she had anything of value to say, to becoming an artist with a powerful impact today - as you’ll hear for yourself from the excerpts of Alycia’s spoken word art we share throughout the episode.Trigger warning: We talk about Alycia’s abortion experience in depth in the first half of the conversation, so take care of yourself if that isn’t a topic that is good for you to connect with at this time. We explore:How Alycia’s cycle healing journey - including a traumatic abortion experience - ultimately led her to a profound freedom of expression. Some simple, practical, accessible ways to begin using your voice as an instrument.How Alycia’s is reclaiming her indigenous lineage, and how we can work with our wombs and voices to connect to our ancestors, and bring our unique medicine into the world. ---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.hardyAlycia Camacho: @embracingcycles - https://www.instagram.com/embracingcycles

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, welcome back to the Menstruality Podcast. Thank you so much for being here. My guest today is Alicia Camacho. She's a spoken word artist who is passionate about supporting people to activate their own voices. She's also a hormonal health coach and the founder

of Embracing Cycles and has taken a long, challenging and ultimately liberating healing journey with emotionally and physically challenging cycles over the past decade. Today we're exploring the connection between the womb and the Voice, why so many of us feel blocked in our expression and how we can literally talk and sing our way back to our power in a cycle-aware way. Along the way, Alicia shares what supported her to transform from being a shy kid who didn't believe she had anything of value to say to becoming an artist with a really powerful impact today. Before we start, I want to share a trigger warning. We talk about Alicia's abortion experience in depth in the first half of the conversation. So do take care of yourself if that isn't a topic that's good for

you to connect with at this time. And I'm really excited with this episode because throughout the conversation I've woven in Alicia's cycle inspired spoken word poetry starting with this one I am a woman who bleeds I am a woman who bleeds from my womb can be planted a seed quite literally but really it's metaphoric creativity blossoming like a flower and I won't hoard it for your comfort I will not tame the wild woman within or be ashamed so if who I am offends you then you can stay in your lane so Alicia I've been looking forward to this conversation for a long time. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me, Sophie. This is such an honor to be able to share this space with you, truly. Let's talk about our cycles. I saw on your Instagram stories that you're

bleeding right now. How's it going? How are you feeling? Oh, so today I'm on day two of my bleed and I'm feeling pretty grounded. I'm feeling pretty clear. I feel like sometimes the maybe the three days or so right before I bleed, I can tend to feel not as clear in my mind. And then once the bleed hits, I'm like, so I feel just like I'm coming back to my brain clarity and feeling really happy to talk about all the things that we're going to talk about today while being on my bleed. I think it's like the perfect equation for all of this. Beautiful. Do you have practices that you do on your bleed? Is there certain things that you always do each month? Oh my gosh, for sure. So I would say my practices start before I even bleed. So usually a week before I'm already prepping my herbal teas, I'm starting to prep my

food, making a big pot of soup, starting to see how I can slow down. I start to kind of alleviate some pressure off of myself, like, okay, you're about to bleed. It's okay to not do these things right now. Really just focus on taking care of your body. And then once I am, once my bleed starts, I really do what I can to just sit with myself. I might still work a little bit here and there because I tend to get ideas and downloads at this time. So if there's anything I can work on from the comfort of my bed, like just on the laptop, I will absolutely still do that. But as far as any rituals, I definitely will give my blood back to the earth, you know,

diluted with water. I believe that it is a powerful offering and a powerful way to show reciprocity with the planet. So I definitely believe in giving my blood back. I am also a poet. So I find that for some reason, this is always a great time for me to start my poems. I find that I have a lot that wants to come out. So I always give myself time to sit down and write. No particular format, no particular sequence or rhythm. I just write. And sometimes out of that writing comes a song or a poem or just some sort of free form of writing. And the other thing is movement. Movement is really huge for me when I am bleeding. So continuing to keep the movement up in my hips, especially, that's always huge for me. So I make sure every day that I'm stretching,

that I'm moving my hips. And another thing that's recently come up for me that I've added as a part of honoring my bleed is sitting and contemplating on the fact that those of us that bleed every month, we are not bleeding because of violence. We are not bleeding because we are sick. We are not bleeding because we are injured. So lately it's just been coming up like, wow, I'm bleeding every month from a place of, I get to birth life in all of the many ways, not just physical, but in all of the ways. And that's been coming up more for me. I get to bleed here in peace. I get to bleed because my body's fertile. I get to bleed because I'm healthy. And I always take a moment to sit with that because I think this is so

overlooked in a society that hasn't taught us the sacredness of our cycles and in a society where a lot of women and people with experience pain and discomfort with their periods, right? So how could they see it as something as sacred when it's uncomfortable? So I would say definitely it is my art, my movement, my spiritual practices and sitting with the fact that we bleed, we get to bleed, not because of violence is definitely a huge part of my practices there. So beautiful. Yeah, it's the only blood that's shed in peace. And I can't remember who I've heard speaking about this. But when we offer it back, it's like pouring the blood of peace back into our world. And boy, does our world need that, need peace right now.

Yeah. You see, you've already started with this, this, this power that you hold in your voice struck me as soon as I came across you first on Instagram. I think it was. And I can hear it already. Like this is a woman who carries power in her voice. And this is what I really wanted to speak to you about today. And we will get into all that, this connection between the womb, the voice, freedom, expression, blood. But before we go there, you've had a very eventful challenging and ultimately really but beautiful and liberating journey with your cycle I'd say and I'd love for you to tell us a bit about it like some of the

the highlights because it's a big story right but if you could tell us some of your your cycle story from your first period to where you find yourself today? I love this question. Okay. I love, thank you for bringing up the fact that it's a long story. It is. So we will, we will kind of highlight through it. So I will say that since I could remember, my period has always been painful. It has always been heavy. I was that 12 year old girl that literally would wear a pad and two pairs of underwear and still bleed through it. I already started having this resentment build up within me since I was that age. I was taking, what's that drug? Midol. Midol, it's specifically for menstrual cramps. I was taking so much Midol, so much medication. And throughout my teenage years, I also struggled with depression. So coupling the heavy and painful periods, the PMS, the depression that I was going through,

I started pretty young feeling disconnected to my body. I remember the moment I turned 17. So here in the US, I'm not sure if it changed, but back then, 17 is when you could start birth control. I remember being 17. I remember hearing my OBGYN say birth control can help with periods. That stuck with me. And my mother also had struggled with periods. So I knew that she would understand. So I remember being 17 years old and I was like, mom, I want to get on birth control. It's supposed to help with my periods. She was like, great, let's do it. So I started on the pill. And from there, things just took a turn that I was not prepared for.

The depression got worse. Now, as we know, you don't get an actual period on birth control. It's just a withdrawal bleed. But even the bleeds that I would get while being on hormonal birth control, they were still painful. They were so painful and still heavy. And I felt like I didn't know what to do. And when I would go back to my OBGYN, she would say, oh, you know what? We just need to put you on this dosage of these hormones. Oh, try this pill, that pill, the shot, the ring, all of the things, right? So I just felt like I was going in a cycle of trying different birth controls. Now, when I was sexually active as like

an 18, 19, 20 year old, what started happening is then I started bleeding during sex. So now I'm still having painful bleeds. I'm still struggling with depression. I'm still feeling very low. I felt like emotionally and mentally I was sick. I start bleeding during sex, literally. Like, I don't know how graphic I can be on here. Yeah, just tell it. Yeah. All right. So we're going to just tell it.

Every time that I would have sex at this point, literally the inside walls of my vagina would rip and tear and I would bleed so much. So again, going back to my OBGYN, I'm not understanding what's happening. I don't understand. They keep switching me, switching me. At some point I was like, you know what? I'm getting off of this. I'm not doing this anymore. This is too much. Now around this time, I started to probably around 18, I started to practice yoga and meditation. And there was that calling, like there's something that calling to connect back to what is bigger than us, whether you want to use the term creator, the most high God. And during this time, I started to have more questions

during this time, I started to develop more of a curiosity. So at that point, when I knew that I was bleeding during sex, still having painful bleeds, and the doctors weren't helping me because there was that part of me that was starting to awaken, I was like, you know what? Let me take a step back from this. You know what? Let me actually research what's going on. And at the time I was studying sociology in college and the college that I went to completely exposed the entire pharmaceutical industry. Wow. That's where the sociology came from. I learned about how the medical system in the U S was created. So that coupled with what I was going through, I was like, okay, I need to get off of this immediately and let my body just be. So I started to work out more and eat healthier and started to do better.

My periods were still painful, but it wasn't consistently. It wasn't every month. At one point when I was 21, I ended up getting pregnant and I was with this person for only like two months. We were, we've only been dating for two months and I completely felt destroyed. I was like, wow, I have been on birth control this time. Finally get off it, give my body a moment to start to come back into balance. And then I get pregnant. So I had just turned 21.

I was a fresh 21 year old. And my partner at the time and I decided to make the decision for me to get an abortion. So I was about five weeks when the procedure happened. And what I'm going to share, I feel like is important in regards to my cycle and how I came back to where I am today. So what I will say is it was a surgical abortion. So I had to be put under anesthesia. And I remember when I woke up and I came back down from the medicine and I walked out of the clinic, this has stayed with me forever. The first thing that my partner says to me is, hey, my best friend's going to come over. We're going to smoke some weed.

Meanwhile, I have just come out of this procedure. And I remember because I was so in shock and my nervous system, because it's not like getting an abortion was easy for me. I absolutely went through a whole moral battle in my mind. And then I come out of that. And that was his first thing that he said. So I froze. I said nothing. I just kind of nodded. I couldn't even speak. So I remember him saying, oh, I'll bring you back to my space so you can lay there and get some rest. And I'll never forget how it felt to be laying there in his bed and his best friend walks in. I have my little hospital band on. I'm looking zoned out and his best friend walks in and I'm just like, this is so not what I thought

this would be. Soon after one of my best friends ended up picking me up and taking me out of that situation. Cause they were like, you need to be around support. And what I learned in this moment was how the trauma that I felt in my body from that experience of not being supported made my voice close up even more than it already was. Yes. And moving forward, without making this too much of a long story, my partner at the time, I ended up staying with this person, which looking back, I'm like, oh, that should have been a red flag to let that go. But I was still young. It's okay. We make mistakes. I stayed with this person for a few more years. Not once did they ever ask me again, how am I feeling? How did it go? Nothing. They never asked me about the abortion. Either way, though, I took it upon myself about a year later after that, after binging on alcohol and substances because I

couldn't deal with the pain after a year after the abortion is when I finally was like, OK, I need to sit with this. I need to face it. I need to look at it. I need to address what is happening. So then I started at around the same time. I also ended up going to nutrition school because I was like, I need guidance. I need to get my body back into balance like what I was trying to do before. So I'm in college. I mean, I'm sorry, I graduated college by then. I went to nutrition school. I learned all about integrative nutrition and herbs and all of these great things. I started applying it to my body. I started to heal my period. Around this time, because I was still practicing yoga, I was very aware how we have the chakras, right? And how the womb space can be looked at as the sacral. And I was like, oh, I'm holding a lot here.

Yeah. So it was a simultaneous process of me learning how to heal my period that brought me closer to my body and learning how to sit with my trauma is what led me to where I am today. And there's more specifics, you know, but I'm sure we'll get more into that. Thank you so much for sharing that story and for trusting us with it. I know a lot of people will appreciate hearing like how you navigated that. And, you know, I will never tire of hearing women speak about their calling and how they've been called like right from the very beginning of your cycle experience something was calling you something was speaking to you and I can't remember where I heard you say this um that you said uh yeah hormonal health this is my calling like hormonal, this is my calling. Like hormonal health, this is my calling.

And to feel how you've stayed curious and loyal to that all the way through this and to see where you are today is just so beautiful. And I want to celebrate you and, you know, all that you've journeyed through. And yeah, thank you for bringing in the abortion experience. One of the things that I've heard you say is that you went through these years of feeling unsafe, of not knowing how to set boundaries, not knowing how to express how you really felt, you know, when you spoke about the trauma then and how it closed off your voice. Could you maybe share a bit more about the process of turning towards your womb, connecting to your womb, feeling that pain and then healing that? So around this time, I was starting to be around like-minded individuals who we just wanted to pave the way for a better earth. We already saw the direction that things were going. So I was already meditating and praying and journaling. A year after the abortion, something hit me and was like, you need to sit down in silence and sit with everything that has happened. And I remember there was a moment where I told my partner at the time and I told my

friends, hey, everyone, I'm going to be taking a few days completely away. Like I'm not going to be responding to messages. I'm not going to be present. I'm just going to be taking to messages. I'm not going to be present. I'm just going to be taking these days for me. So what I did during those few days is I just sat in silence and I sat with the thoughts of, am I going to be forgiven for this? Did I just interfere with a soul that was supposed to come to the planet? I sat with all of that. And then I wrote a letter. I wrote a letter to my unborn child. And when I wrote that letter, it cracked me open even more

than I already was. I wrote a letter to my unborn child. I read it out loud and then I burned it as a way to just solidify the letting go of it. And in that letter, I said things I haven't said in the last year. So not only did it crack open my heart, but it cracked open my voice. It cracked open my womb. And finally, after these few days, I went back to my partner and I told him how I felt. He didn't really have much of a response because he wasn't really emotionally intelligent and didn't have the emotional capacity to hold space for what I was going through. But I let him know how I felt. And then finally, I started talking about it more. I started sharing more with my friends how I felt.

I started sitting with it more. I started in prayer or in meditation communicating to my unborn child and just saying the things I had to say. And some days it was really hard. And some days I felt like I could be there and I could say what I had to say. Around this time, because I started writing so much, I remember I just started writing poetry. Things started just flowing out of me from this moment. And at first I was like, okay, I'm just writing some poetry. You know, this is great. It feels good. It was just more for me, but during this process, again, I was healing my period, so now

my periods were getting better. Now I was feeling more connected to my body, and I remember during those times of communicating to my unborn child, I started holding my womb. I started putting my hands on my womb. I started communicating to my womb and, you know, apologizing because that's really traumatic to have a surgical abortion. So, and I know how much trauma the body at that time, I knew how much trauma the body can hold onto. So I remember talking to my womb and holding my womb. And around this time, I'm holding my womb and talking to her. I'm writing poetry. I'm starting to heal my body. My periods are getting better.

I'm starting to communicate the things that I have to say. And then around this time, I started being in communal spaces, like of like minded people. And I started sharing things. And growing up, I was a shy kid. I never really thought I had anything important to say. I never really thought that I was relevant. I was never in like the cool kids. I was always a quiet, shy girl that did her work, right. So I remember around this time I would be in communities. When I started sharing things, people actually would listen. And I was so taken aback. And maybe this doesn't even sound like it's a big deal. But for me, I was like, wait, people are actually listening to what I have to say. Maybe I'm not as insignificant as I thought I was this whole time. And I remember there was

this process where I was still with that partner, but what was happening is I was starting to kind of drift away because I started to connect to people that actually saw me. I started to connect to people that actually wanted to do better for the sake of humanity. I started to connect to people that actually wanted to do better for the sake of humanity. I started to connect to people that had the capacity to relate more than just on a surface level. One thing led to another. And as I started sharing more, I started thinking, well, maybe I should share even more. So I had an Instagram at the time and I just started sharing. This is when stories first came out on Instagram. This is back when Instagram was about writing long captions that people would actually read. So I remember just sharing on stories, getting on and

sharing on stories, just not even necessarily about my abortion, just about anything, just about life, just about this experience. And I started to receive feedback from people saying that they were going through it too, or that it helped them. And I was like, okay, again, I didn't expect this. And then I ended up getting back into dance and movement around that time too. And the movement really activated something within me. Because as we know, we need movement to move emotions and energy throughout the body. So the more that I moved, the more that I felt like I could speak. The more that I would dance, the more that I felt inspired to share verbally. The more that I danced, the more that I felt inspired to share verbally. The more that I danced, the more that I felt inspired to share poetry.

So it was like it wasn't like a one thing. It was like healing my body and nutrition and dance and then the poetry and sitting with my abortion and really giving myself the time that I needed. From there, I started sharing more and then receiving feedback. And then from there, I was like, maybe I'll share my poetry. So I started sharing my poetry and it just kind of spiraled from there. And it's not even something that I say that I chose, it chose me. I never had dreams of sharing in this way. I'm pretty sure if somebody heard me from maybe eight years ago or 10 years ago, they probably wouldn't recognize me speaking this way. So I didn't think that I would be here. So it was definitely a simultaneous thing. And I like to say that my abortion was like a major catalyst to all of this, because it also made me think about how many women get an abortion and aren't

supported. And when I did share my story, I did come out and share my abortion story at some point through an email list that I had. And I can't tell you how many women told me they went through the same thing where their partner did not support them. I ended up sharing this with, I didn't even tell my mom until about two or three years after. All of that was simultaneous. And to just wrap up this little part, I will say that the more that I started to use my voice, the more that I

started to feel connected to myself. Yes. You've said so much. I just want to tease out some threads because I hear regularly from the women and people in our community that they want to free up their expression, that they, like you, just sense that there were words that want to rise up when, especially in their bleed, when they connect to their womb, there are words that want to come out. There's expression that wants to come out, but there's a block in the throat, or there's a block, you know, driven by fear, all the things that shut us down, trauma. So I just want to track some of the things that you're like the breadcrumb trail that you're laying out here when you described how you freed

up your voice it started with connection to your womb which really was well it sounds like an initiatory process of finding your way to be with the pain finding your way to be with the pain and to let it speak which Alexandra often says that when you go through an initiation experience a sort of death and rebirth experience it always just feels like death when you're in the death phase you're not like oh this feels awful now but I'm gonna feel better soon it's hard yeah I imagine that was incredibly hard that time when you were grieving and speaking the voice of your unspoken child. And, you know, we all have some story, I'd say some story of grief that is being held in our wombs, our pelvises, you know, and so yeah, first to turn towards it, to feel it, to allow it to be expressed.

To move, to move your body, your hips. I just found myself doing that this morning when I was washing up. I was like, yes, I haven't moved like this for a while. I had a baby three years ago. I feel like I'm still getting my body, like feeling my body back. And then I loved one of the third thing I want to draw out, which is like you started speaking and then the feedback fed you. And nourished you and kept you motivated, inspired to keep speaking. And it's like taking that first step of writing that thing or saying that thing is so terrifying for us. But when we start, then we start getting the conversation with the world and then we get nourished and fed and then it can keep going.

Right. Has that been your experience? Yeah, 100 percent as somebody who has felt like who will want to listen to me. And it's not that I needed the external validation. It was more like showing me, oh, okay, I am heard. Maybe these programmings of I'm not heard are just something I have to deprogram. And then once I got the feedback, then it just became medicine for me. Like even today, the person I am today, now when I share my voice or poetry or song or whatever it is, a lot of the time I'm just sharing it because it's medicine for me. And I trust that it will resonate with who it's

meant to resonate with. But absolutely, absolutely. The feedback was a reflection of, hey, you are heard okay we'll get back to this amazing conversation with alicia in just a moment but before we do i want to share a couple of invitations for you to go deeper with your own menstrual cycle awareness practice or to connect to your cyclical wisdom if you don't currently have a menstrual cycle because you're in menopause, post-menopause, pregnant, breastfeeding, have health challenges or for another reason. So our free Love Your Cycle online course will guide you to connect to the wisdom, the power, the medicine of the inner seasons of your menstrual cycle and you can join it for free at redschool.net forward slash love it's a great companion to our book wild power discover the magic of the

menstrual cycle and awaken the feminine path to power okay before we get back to our conversation with alicia we're going to have some more of her beautiful spoken word poetry. Your womb is a portal of creation meant to be awakened out of hibernation. It is the seat of your expression, your second heart to your existence. It plays a vital part. Listen to the whispers of the womb that affect your flowing waters like that of the the moon how deeply can you tune into the divine expression that creator wishes to move through you into the womb and initiation will you join the room I'd love to speak to you about how you see the connection between your voice and your ancestors. You've said the womb is the seat of your intuition and your expression, which in my lived experience, I just really feel for myself.

And that connecting with your womb and expressing it's not about being woo woo and like new age. It's actually an ancient practice which we can bring back today you know it's very natural it's innate um and you speak about your journey to connect with your indigenous lineage the Taino people yes Taino people Taino I would love to hear you speak about the connections here the womb your indigenous lineage how you're journeying with this absolutely first I'd like to share a little bit of science because I really believe in bridging science and spirituality. So before I even go into the energetics and what it feels like and the emotions, one of the first things that came up for me in the beginning of my journey was when my mom was in my grandmother's womb, I was in there too. Because as the eggs were in my mom

as a fetus, as she was developing, I was one of those eggs. So I was inside of my grandmother's womb as well, which means whatever my grandmother was carrying, whatever her grandmother was carrying is absolutely being passed down through the tissue, the blood, the genetics. So even when we talk about ancestral trauma or ancestral wisdom, you were literally in your grandmother absorbing what your grandmother was absorbing from her grandmother and so on and so forth. So if you take like a big family tree and you see how many people it took for you to be where you like, who you just, you that just that one person, it took a lot of people just for you to get here. And I, it makes me think about how much of a

trickle down there is from everything that they went through. Now, when it comes to the womb being a major seat of intuition and of expression, right? If we look at different modalities across the world, like if we look at Chinese medicine and we look at their energetic system. Our womb can also technically be called our lower dantian, right? The dantian are the major energetic centers in Chinese medicine. If we want to look at the yogic practice with the chakras, the sacral chakra would technically be the womb space. So we already see that there's so many different, and those are just to name two, but we already see there's different places in the world where they see this area of our body as a major energetic center.

And if we look at the womb just as the organ that it is, there's space inside of it. It's dark. And there's just open space. It's like a void, right? And the other thing, too, just to bring in the science aspect is I just want to shed light really quickly on the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is one of our largest cranial nerves that innervates pretty much every single organ throughout our body. And our vagus nerve is so key in our healing. It helps us to release a lot of emotion.

And if you consider that your vagus nerve connects every organ, if we are holding trauma in our womb, in the lower part of our body, that that can affect our voice feeling closed or vice versa. Our voice might feel open, but our womb, we might feel closed off to our womb, right? And because our vagus nerve innervates our throat our larynx right if we there's a trauma response i don't know if you've ever experienced this i have a lot in my life a lot a lot yeah where the trauma response is like i can't talk i literally had it yesterday yeah i'm sure our listeners are nodding yeah so many of us feel it 100% because the vagus nerve responds to your trauma it's a huge part of your nervous system so if there's a part of your nervous system and because a part of you starts to feel unsafe or whatever the feeling might be for you

that can affect your throat and it can literally just close there. It can go into that freeze state, right? From an energetic perspective and also science, we hold emotions in our body. We hold emotions in our organs. Chinese medicine associates different emotions with different organs as well, right? Being that our womb is such a major center for me, my womb is a bridge through which creator speaks. Our womb literally can birth an entire human, but it can also birth our dreams, our goals, our words. I believe that when we speak, when we're really speaking with intention, that we're actually speaking from the womb. It's not just your vocal cords get triggered and the words come out from here. It's more of like an up and

then out. I, the way that I have gotten to this place in my life is by allowing my words to come from my womb and taking my time because you can feel the difference when somebody is really speaking intentionally versus they're just speaking maybe just from their mind down and out. But I like to see a bridge. I like to see the mind bridge with the womb, meet at the throat, and then express. And that ties in to my indigenous lineage and to ancestral wisdom. Because for not even just my own lineage, but for many indigenous lineages across the world, due to colonization, a lot of culture has been taken away. Their voices were taken away. Not literally their voices taken away, but they weren't allowed to express.

A lot of indigenous cultures across the world due to colonization, they couldn't speak their native languages anymore. They couldn't sing their native songs. They couldn't dance their traditional dances. And I believe that I'm not here just doing what I'm doing for me. Like, it's like, this is not just for Alicia because Alicia wants to do this. There's a bigger purpose. So when I speak, when I move, when I create, I'm doing it with the force of my ancestors behind me. I'm doing it for those that couldn't speak. I'm doing it for those that couldn't speak. I'm doing it for those that couldn't move. I'm doing it for those that did not have the privilege to even be able to speak up

on certain topics. I mean, you could literally get murdered or have your family massacred for speaking certain things or for even just speaking your native language. So I believe that I am a cycle breaker. Maybe you feel this way too, Sophie. Maybe those of you listening feel this way too, but the cycle breakers, we are the one to break the generational trauma that has been just plaguing our lineage for generations. But in order for us to do that, we really have to move forward in complete connectedness to our body. Because as much as we hold that generational trauma, we hold the wisdom. We hold the keys to the healing as well.

And what I mean by that, just to give a more tangible example, I'm sure you, Sophie, and people listening are familiar with the concept of sound healing or receiving a sound bath, right? Where people will play singing bowls and didgeridoos and flutes as a way to help flush the nervous system, calm the nervous system and move through emotions, right? But we overlook the fact that our own voice is a sound healing instrument. That when you are speaking, when you are humming,

when you are toning, you're actually calming your nervous system. You're actually calming your vagus nerve and you're allowing your body to relax. So there's that. Just that. Yeah. Just that. Yeah, just that. I just want to say a word to the white women like me listening about dec learned from that there's a pain that we need to turn towards inside us as the daughters of colonizers as the children of colonizers and part of the work we can do is to turn towards that pain you know a similar pathway to you were describing Alicia around turn towards the pain in the womb let it move let it be grieved let it be expressed so that we are healing that within ourselves and don't continue to perpetuate the harm of

colonization you know it's an ongoing conversation we're having here on the podcast, and one we just must keep coming back to again and again. Thank you for sharing. I think that decolonization is a process that we all need to go through, all of us, in whatever way it looks like for us. We all need to recognize the programs that have been instilled in us and in our lineage and pave a different way. So I appreciate you for saying that because a lot of this is uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable to sit with no matter what side you're on, no matter what side your lineage was on, it's uncomfortable. So thank you for giving the space for voices of women of color to be heard and for wombs to be heard in also a society that doesn't prioritize women's health as well. So I appreciate that. I appreciate that space. Another major thing that pushed me on this decolonization process was learning about the different cultural practices of when a woman or a person with a womb is on their period. I think it was back in 2021. I traveled to the Brazilian Amazonian rainforest and I stayed with the Yawanawa people.

And then when a woman is bleeding, she's not allowed to, you know, over there they drink their sacred ayahuasca plant medicine, right? They have the ceremonies. There, the women are not allowed to touch the leaves or the vine that make up the ayahuasca tea. Because they are already in their own ceremony. And they feel like the women just need to be in their own energy. Because it can be too much to then give into the medicine. Because women are such a powerful force already when they are bleeding. It's like our own mini ceremony every month.

In Lakota tradition, where they have the sweat lodge, when a woman is bleeding, she is not to tend to the fire or to be too close to the fire because she can, again, interfere with that. There's another group of Indigenous women from Colombia where once a girl at 12 or 11 years old gets her period, she is put in isolation and she is brought food and she is brought things. They teach her weaving. She weaves while she bleeds. So I just say all that to say I love you brought up the word initiation a little while back and I just want to say we have lost touch with our initiations and when I learned how different cultures view getting your bleed and having your period that also was another thing that made me realize, whoa, what is here?

What is it about this process that makes it so sacred? And I think sometimes there's a perspective that the older civilizations were less advanced, but I actually think they were more in tune with nature than we are today oh yeah and throughout this whole journey it's it's been a whole journey of me reconnecting back to my own Taino lineage as a little like quick asterisk growing up uh my grandfather was black but he was a black Puerto Rican and there is so much internalized racism within the Latino communities. I won't get into that, but his own family, his lighter skin family members were always racist toward him, but he was a very dark, dark skin man. And I remember he always wore

this ring, this gold ring that was a chief with a headdress on, you know, that feather headdress that a lot of indigenous chiefs wear. And I remember always being so curious, like my grandfather's black and he's wearing a chief ring. What is this about? And then I started learning more about my culture. And so my family comes from Puerto Rico. The indigenous name is Boriken. On that island, a lot of people reclaim, a lot of people, like they're very open with being like, yeah, we're T the roots of Thanksgiving here in the U.S. and the roots of it and the colonization aspect of that. And then learning more about my grandfather's ring and why he wore a chief's ring and seeing how he was darker skinned. He was clearly of African and Thaino descent.

So I've always known the truth. But I would say once I started connecting back to my body in my womb, I was like, no, no, no. There's more that needs to be unpacked here. So that is where I am today. And ultimately, to some degree, we all belong to the earth. So, yes, I think it's important to connect back to your lineage. If you can learn your native language, your native songs, your native dances, do that 100%. I love singing in my native language.

I love going to ceremonies, you know, in the way that my ancestors did. And at the same time, no matter who you are or where you're from, how can we connect back to our bodies so that we can also connect back to the planet that needs us beautifully said i just want to point our listeners to a couple of other podcast episodes um episode 138 with dr creed i who explored a lot of different indigenous menstrual rituals if you'd like to learn more about that and I can't remember what number it is but it's with Tara Braiding for those of us who have lineage from Britain she did a great episode about womb wisdom from these islands and how to reconnect to the original wisdom of these islands so a couple of resources for people gosh there's so many things I want to ask you but hang on let

me see yeah I want to read something that's very connected to the last thing you just said and just see if we can expand on it a little more about using our voice as medicine for the world and I think we can extend that as speaking from the voice of our womb as medicine for the world and I think we can extend that as speaking from the voice of our womb as medicine for the world you said recently on Instagram in a caption so I did read it so I'm still of the generation that reads Instagram thank you me too I'm a caption reader too thank you I I type them for people like you old school um so you said genocide is happening all over the world the genocide of humans of ecosystems of biodiversity of trees waters that were once pristine in addition to calling writing to our governments and withdrawing our money from companies funding genocide to the best of our ability

we can use our voice to speak up for those who may not be able to. We can anchor the light, the love, the courage, the healing within ourselves so that we can anchor this energy into the world for those who can't. The planet needs your medicine. I'm curious to hear, Alicia, what you would say to someone longing to use their voice more loudly, more fully, feeling the grief of what's happening in our world. What would you say is like first steps to begin this process? So I would say that the first step is just being able to use your voice on your own, alone. It doesn't mean that you need to just go out there and first, how do you relate to your voice alone with nobody else in the room, just you? Because I'm a firm believer that it has to start within to come without

so if that means first before anything else if that means you take every day even if it's five minutes a day and you sit down and you practice different tonings. Ooh, ah, mm. Taking a deep breath and allowing the exhale to be the sound. And just sitting there with yourself with these different sounds. So that you first can start to feel how your voice feels. So that you can start to show your body what the vibrations of your own voice feels like. So I find that first it starts with that. You can do sounds, you can do tones. Another thing is speaking your prayers out loud. So I know a lot of times we're quiet when we pray,

right? But if you could just speak the same prayers you say, or if it's affirmations or whatever it is, but sit there and say it out loud so that your body can hear your voice from a different way, that is an incredible place to start. There's a reason why many cultures around the world, a lot of our ancestors, no matter who we were, I'm sure a lot of our ancestors were probably singing out loud together to some degree. Why? Why? What is it about getting together and using your voice? It's because our voice carries a vibration.

Right? Everything carries a vibration. Sound, light, what we see. Right? So I would say using your voice on your own at first, just use it with yourself. Use it with yourself. If you want to practice a song, if you want to write something, share it with yourself. You know, as someone who teaches vocal activation, I think sometimes people think it means that then you

need to go and share your voice right away. Just start first within yourself and then see what that opens up for you. Because at the end of the day, I don't expect everybody to use their voice like me. I don't expect everyone to use their voice like you. I don't expect everyone to use their voice like me. I don't expect everyone to use their voice like you. I don't expect everyone to use their voice in the same way. But when we can use our voice on our own alone, that is going to help us heal. And the more that we heal and the more that we feel connected to our body, to our movement, to our voice, we will better know where to go and how to show up for the world. Beautifully beautifully said it's making me think of something really healing that's happened on an ancestral level with my son I asked my mom if there was a song that her mom had sung to her that then I could sing to him and she taught me a Welsh

lullaby because my granny's from Wales and I've been singing it to Artie and he actually asked me to sing it the other day. He's invented his own lyrics now, which don't make any sense because he's three. But it's been so beautiful to connect and allow it to come through my voice. And as I do, I feel so many things. I feel so woven in. I feel a real sense of belonging. It's beautiful. Before we close, I'd love to hear you share how people can connect with you,

your voice activation work. Yeah. What are you up to and how can people connect with you? Amazing. I also feel like we could have talked for so much more. Thank you. So people can find me on Instagram at embracing cycles. My website is embracing cycles.com. I'm actually going to be opening up my, my three week vocal activation course next week. It's a three week program where we activate the voice and the womb. Cause if you want to be connected to your voice, you have to be connected to your womb. If you want to be connected to your womb, you need to be connected to your voice. So it's both activations happening at the same time.

If you go on my website, embracingcycles.com, and you go to my services, you'll be able to go to the page of my course. It's called Words of the Womb. You can go ahead and sign up for the waitlist, or maybe by the time this airs, it'll be open already. So that is the way that you can work with me. I also am open to taking one-on-one clients for hormone health issues, those that might be struggling with painful periods, heavy periods, those who want to naturally manage endometriosis, PCOS, dysmenorrhea, or irregular periods. And again, with that, you can contact me through embracingcycles.com.

Thank you, love. This has been such a delight. I really appreciate you. I appreciate the courage that you have. I appreciate the journey that you've taken. And I'm excited to see where you go from here way that things just flow. So thank you for seeing me. Thank you for trusting me to share my voice on this platform. It really does mean a lot, Sophie. Thank you so much. I don't have any other words. Just I'm so grateful. It's a love fest. Bye, love.

Talk soon. it's a love fest bye love talk soon thank you for being with us all the way until the end here please please share this episode with a friend who you sense would enjoy it and let's close with some inner autumn wisdom from alicia which has one of my favorite tracks from Beautiful Chorus in the background, Faith's Hymn. OK, before we get over to Alicia, I will be with you again next week. And until then, keep living life according to your own brilliant rhythm. It is OK to feel sensitive before your period. At this time in your inner autumn season, you are quite literally the green leaves that are gradually turning brown and the beautiful flower petals starting to wither down. Your body is preparing for inner winter, which is your bleed, so allow yourself to feel it all with ease.