The Menstruality Podcast - 153. What Could Your Menstruality Career Look Like? (Alexandra & Sjanie)

Episode Date: July 4, 2024

Speaking about the menstrual cycle and menopause is becoming less and less taboo. You can see it everywhere you look; Instagram is wonderfully full of women teaching cycle tracking for health and fertility. Our recent podcast guest Dr Lara Owen is busy co-creating international menstrual and workplace policies. You can buy menstrual cups in supermarkets. This podcast has been listened to 246,235 times!And this surge in the menstruality movement is ushering in a whole new wave of career possibilities for those of us who feel drawn to the power and wisdom of menstrual cycle. In today’s podcast we explore many of them, through the lens of some of our Menstruality Leadership Programme graduates and the brilliant careers they have gone on to create. The doors for our 2025 MLP have just opened, and we’d love to have you with us for this - world’s first - leadership training rooted in menstruality. You can find out more at www.menstrualityleadership.com.We explore:Menstrual cycle and menopause career possibilities including menstrual cycle coaching, doctors and psychotherapists specialising in all aspects of cycle health, people helping tweens with their first periods, creating cycle-aware products like journals and self care tools, as well as menstrually inspired authors, artists and activists. Some of the myriad ways that our graduates infuse menstruality into their existing careers, including; in business, crafting, Yoga, school teaching and even sailing. How menstruality can also inform the often invisible and (frustratingly) unpaid caring, earth-ending and energetic work that so many of us do, which weaves this world together.---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, welcome back to the podcast. Our world is becoming so much more cycle aware. It's starting to infuse more and more areas of our public sphere. And today we had a fantastic time

looking at all of the different ways that people are working with the power of the menstrual cycle and menopause. And it kind of felt like the world's first menstruality career fair. Like we were walking past all of these stalls. We looked at career paths that are directly focused on the menstrual cycle and menopause, like menstrual cycle coaching, doctors and psychotherapists specializing in all aspects of cycle health, people helping tweens and teens with their first periods. And we also looked at some of the ways that our menstruality leadership program graduates are infusing menstruality wisdom and intelligence into their existing careers,

including their careers in business, crafting and making, yoga, school teaching and even sailing. And importantly, we chat about how menstruality wisdom can infuse the often invisible and frustratingly unpaid, caring work, the earth tending work that many of us do, which is the work that really weaves this world together. So we shared lots of great stories, lots of laughs, and if you've been wondering about joining us for the 2025 Menstruality Leadership Programme and the doors have just opened, then we hope this episode inspires you to dream into what your work in the world could look like on the other side of the program. Hey Alexandra, hey Shani, good morning. Good morning. This is such a big rich conversation we have ahead of us. I'm looking forward to it but before we get in, where are you both in your cycling lives i am on moon day 21 and there's a substantiality of that summer energy in me because we've just crossed the solstice a week ago or so and there's a sort of fullness there and at the same time I am stretched

and when I'm stretched I slow everything down I'm very slowed down and it's like I'm moving at slow motion inside myself and it's actually a nice experience there because I feel very close to myself. So I'm feeling the sort of richness of everything we're doing at Red School. I'm feeling the fecundity of summer. I'm feeling how stretched I am. And is that something that comes naturally to you? Or is that something that's been cultivated in you over your cycle awareness practice, this slowing down when it is utterly i have grown that muscle because i will not compromise my well-being

but also i don't want to judge the place i'm in i want to inhabit the place I'm in so it's a real choice but it's a muscle that happens really it's not you know it's not a flabby muscle in me that one it's a really strong one yeah it's buff it's buff it's a buffed muscle it sure is buff that that muscle. Wow, Alexandra, it's an impressive, impressive muscle. I'm day 16. I feel like I've been doing some heavy duty vacuuming. Please note, this is a metaphor and not a betrayal of any real life event. This is purely metaphorical. But yeah, I feel like I've been doing some heavy duty vacuuming and just in the last day or two, the plug has come undone it's like I moved into another room and the stretch was too

much and the plug pulled out the wall and I noticed that I was still trying to vacuum but that there was no connection to the source of power, which is a very, very good to catch. And it has felt like a very powerless place to be in. I mean, actually, I hadn't quite intended that play on words. It was a good one, a powerless place, a place not connected to power. And I'm just slowly realizing that rather than continuing vacuuming without the power source, maybe I'll just stop. And by that, I mean, drop my agency my will my agenda because the truth is I feel will-less my will is so depleted so depleted there really is nothing not much drive in my system so yeah I may as well down tools and just let it be is the place I'm coming to slowly.

And is this a crossover experience for you? Is 16 summer into autumn now for you? Yeah, it feels like a crossover, but it feels like a post-solstice, post-moon. Yes. I really, really felt it this time yeah like the aftermath wow we are unusually basically in the same space it feels like because I'm on day 21 with you Alexandra and I had these this crazy 10 days where aid went away for five days and then came back very sick so I was in bed for five days so I was with Arthi and working and all of it for 10 days

and I completely lost touch with myself and I knew it was last night that I realized the level to which I'd lost touch with my deep self I noticed that all day I'd been on my phone scrolling that's always a bad sign for me and then I got to the end of the day so overloaded and I could my critic was just ripping me apart just telling me all the way just giving me a whole litany of ways that I'd failed that day in every aspect of my life it's very thorough my critic you know gotta give it that you know no they are oh absolutely detail is their thing precision they have we're going to be speaking about academia later and I really could write a PhD on all of my faults like a very deep treatise and and I had such a tender moment with aid who had just come

back from a difficult experience with his mother my mother-in-law that's a whole nother story and he was being so tender with me and he held space for me while I while I realized oof this is a critic attack oh I'm very far away from myself ah my inner autumn premenstruum is calling me back to myself and I yeah I came home it was a homecoming bumpy messy uncomfortable homecoming and one of those massive thank goodness for cycle awareness moments because otherwise it would have been a I'm mad what's wrong with me I can't cope la la la la and no i was able to catch it and now it's there now it's the slowing down mission with you two down tools yeah you have the will yeah wow that's very moving sophie very moving well done thank you together, we will slowly find our way into this very big and rich feast of a conversation that we have planned where we want to look at what could, speaking about the menstrual cycle, speaking about menopause is becoming less and less weird, less and less taboo. On Instagram, it's just full,

wonderfully full of women like teaching cycle tracking for fertility, for health, for everything. I was just interviewed Laura Owen. She's out there creating international menstrual and menopause workplace policies you can buy menstrual cups in supermarkets like it's happening the menstrual cycle is is here at the heart of our world not okay not quite that's an exaggeration but it's here and you know this this little podcast has been listened to 246,235 times. So it's happening. And with this wave and this opening up of this field is coming a whole massive range of career possibilities for people like us who feel drawn to the power,

drawn to the wisdom of the menstrual cycle. And we're going to look at some of them today through the lens of some amazing stories of from our graduates of the menstruality leadership program and what they've gone on to do since since graduation to give everyone listening a sense of what's possible here yes beautiful it's uh so moving hearing you say that so because i'm remembering alexandra and i having a conversation way back in the mists of time where we were purely in the dream of this and at the time a seemingly impossible dream of menstruality really as being this inner restoration. But we were also very much holding this dream of menstruality as a new professional field in the world and all the shapes

and forms that will take in all the different sectors of life. And I remember, you know, when we used to speak about it, getting so excited of sort of imagining communities having menstruality mentors, space holders, teachers that support people through all the stages of the menstruality arc, and that it's held in our communities, but it's also held in the sort of structures of our world, in the education systems. It's held in our law, you know, in how we organize life. It's held in education and so on and so on and so on and so on so and it's happening as you say the graduates from our program are the ones who are realizing this and I was thinking about it this morning when we were coming to this conversation and I was feeling such a sense of pride gratitude appreciation for the very singular unique and brilliant ways that

the people who have done the men's strategy leadership program have gone on to integrate this work and bring it into their professional lives I was feeling so kind of blown away because we've never really gathered the stories, you know. We've been hearing the stories and tracking people's, you know, ways of taking on the world. But, yeah, so this conversation is a sort of harvest moment where we've gathered some. It's actually only just some of the many, many, many stories. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. It's actually only just some of the many, many, many stories. Alexandra, one of the things that you said when we were talking about this episode was that it's good to name that we're still at the very beginning of the emergence of this field. The world really is our oyster here and to say that many people come to this work having no idea where they're headed with it but just feeling the call feeling a call inside to come to it oh yes it is just that people just they just feel they have to do the program. It's just sort of almost non-negotiable. And I always think of one particular story that was the very first, well, it was called a different name back then, but Men's Transition Leadership Program we ran back in 2011.

In those days, it was in person and there were three residentials we had and i had one place left on this program and um and this one woman it was at the 11th hour she she says is there still a place and i go funny enough yes there is. And she had been wrestling because it was mad. She was a mum. She was co-running a busy yoga practice with her husband. I mean, you know, young children and, you know, but all the time she was going, no, I can't, practical, no, I can't possibly. And then at the last minute she said, I've just got to do this.

Anyway, she gets her place. And after the the first residential i get this email from her she said it's already speaking to me it's all i can't stop it and already she was getting a download of what she wanted to do a whole kind of program she wanted to develop and i was going well maybe you could just take your time a little and, you know, perhaps do another residential before. But no, she went ahead and she started this program, which is still going strong today and has actually brought quite a lot of people to our work. And in particular, I think Lisa Lister, who has written many books, including one on the menstrual cycle, Cloned Red. And it's very integral to her work. That's where she discovered it, through Sarah's program.

What is Sarah's program? So Sarah runs a yoga studio called Yoga Sanctuary and she's running the work the workshop is called Awaken Your Inner Power Menstrual Cycle Awareness. Yeah so as Sarah's example shows we just don't know what this work is going to do to us and with us and through us. And what's so interesting about menstruality as a profession, you know, I'm thinking about sort of career guidance. And so often when we're looking for career guidance, or we are feeling like there is something for us, but we don't know what it is, we go and look at the examples in the world. But this is, you know, you would go and visit different professionals and see what they do and how they do it. But this is, you know, you would go and visit different professionals and see what

they do and how they do it. But this is such uncharted territory. This is really, truly pioneering work. And so it is very much about feeling that unnameable, unknowable feeling in your being that this is what you're called to, and then daring to trust that you will be guided every step of the way in terms of what that's going to be and look like for you. Every single person who is doing our training is carving a new path, is creating this professional field. So it is truly an act of daring and trust. And it is a great courtship with the unknown that we're all very much a part of. And I think what makes that possible is that we have such a strong sense of community at Red School.

You know, the graduates who come and do the program, and we have this postgraduate community called the Hive, where we can really ally each other, learn from each other, support each other in what is a very unknown space so I think that's been a big part of what is enabling people to do the incredibly wonderful things that you're about to hear and so and it's good to remember that for every story that we share they began quaking exactly not knowing what it was that there was there to do and then they followed the breadcrumb trail that their cycle laid out and bonded them it has all come out of nothing and that's what menstrual cycle awareness really trains us in is this trust of the empty straight space and the

trust of being you know in that in a winter unknown place to allow ourselves to be guided yeah and everyone has come through that great unknown to where they are now which is beautiful that's precisely what happened to us you know it is in different ways you know it wasn't like i went oh menstruality yes this is a field that's not inhabited yet on the contrary all we had was loathing and shame, you know. And all you had was menstrual pain. I know. And all I had was menstrual pain.

This was not a good look, you know. It's making me think of back when I had my career guidance session at school and they couldn't find a career for me apart from the one that came up when I did the computer survey was a funeral director oh wow that's quite amazing I think it just goes to show I was destined for something weird that didn't exist yeah well exactly you you they knew that it was something to do with initiation you know something to do with the great life death cycle so yeah okay so riddle me this sophie jane when i had my career guidance you know what they told me i should town planning how about how about uh restructuring human consciousness through the embodiment of our

menstrual cycle why didn't they mention that it'll be on those careers lists so soon it you know it's coming soon i can feel it i can feel it in my waters. It's coming. Let's describe some of the different ways that it's coming. So we're going to look at careers that are directly related to the menstrual cycle and menopause. Then we're going to look at people who are bringing menstruality to their already existing fields. And then we're going to talk about unpaid work as well. But starting with the menstrual cycle careers, menstrual coaching or mentorship.

And this can either be from a health perspective, from a psycho-spiritual perspective, mental, emotional, physical health, and often a fusion of all of them. And a couple of examples that come to came to mind for me are Kate Gutierrez who's doing this wonderful endometriosis support that's come from her own direct initiatory very deep healing process with her own journey with endometriosis and how she has worked with the

cycle and allowed herself to be worked by the cycle to understand the kind of support that women and people with endometriosis truly need it's been very beautiful to witness the birth of that that yeah Kate's story I find particularly moving and um and she you know she has done she's tried everything you know I've heard her tell her story to me about you know to heal her symptoms and actually all those things are important but it was the it was like menstruality was the missing piece that she brought into that whole healing journey that, you know, that I suppose like a catalyst that catalyzed all the other elements for her. And she worked very deeply with her relationship to this energy field of menstruality, if you like, with the energies of her cycle. She really dared to trust her body. And I always remember she gave, she was getting,

having extra menstruality medicine circle sessions with Abby, one of our faculty. And she said to Abby, you you know tell Alexandra this shit works yeah she she talks about her work as being embodied healing through menstrual cycle awareness and her story and also the work she does is just a very beautiful example of how cycle awareness can bring profound healing to menstrual health conditions but also other health conditions which we have seen again and again that the cycle and trusting the cycle creates coherence and harmony and healing at the deepest level at a cellular level in our body yeah yeah and another example and we there are so many examples we could name and we actually

have a um register on our website of all of our graduates that I'll drop in the show notes so you can explore all the different examples but another one that came to mind for me is Nat, Natalie Martin who came to this work as a coach and it's just been fascinating to watch how her menstrual coaching has changed over the years along with her own menstruality journey that she started off talking a lot about PMS the premenstruum she's also been speaking about pleasure and sensuality and more recently she had a baby and so it went through pregnancy postpartum and now living as a mother and it's just fascinating to see how the work evolves as our menstruality unfolds in our own lives. Exactly. The work is sourced from our lived experience.

I think what differentiates this field of work from so many is it's not about passing on information to other people. It is really about realizing this experience for yourself and what you awaken to through your own cycle awareness practice and through your own menstruality life arc, just as Natalie has, because sharing from that place is so rich and meaningful. We actually transmit something to others because they can feel our embodied knowing of what we're saying. So this menstruality coaching or mentoring is as much about guiding others as it is about being a living example of something.

So your inner work and your own relationship to menstruality is the absolute bedrock and foundation of being a menstruality mentor or coach or whatever you do in the world. And I think that's a beautiful thing because it's deeply nourishing. You aren't just in the act of giving. You're actually receiving and passing on what you've received to others. It's very reciprocal and very sustaining work because of that. And speaking about being a living embodied example of something, there are also doctors andDD and PME to create this program for people who are experiencing, for those who don't know what PMDD stands for, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, to help guide them through the experience through a menstrual cycle awareness

lens. Yes, that's incredible work that Helena is doing. Again, it's her own personal challenge with the cycle, you know, that brought her into this and wanting to find a different way. And she's crafting something quite original now. You know, she's taken what she's learned from us and she's in a sense channeling it through her very real life experience dealing with something and how it's transformed her

and is now transforming others' lives. It's very beautiful. There are many of our other graduates who are bringing this into the medical space, but also into the mental health space. And this is something I feel particularly passionate about having worked as a psychotherapist and having a speciality in hypnotherapy and dealing a lot with mental health issues,

and just how knowledge of the cycle and cycle awareness is such a bedrock for mental health. And so much of what goes on in terms of our mental health, could be mitigated or actually remedied through cycle awareness. That's a brave statement I'm making, but I'm excited by what our graduates are doing in this field because I can imagine a world in which psychotherapy trainings and medical trainings are teaching cycle awareness as a module as a very important module because it's not something we can overlook because it's so fundamental to our experience it's it shapes how we think and feel in a very profound way way. If all of these menstruality career ideas are inspiring you and piquing your interest, we invite you to come on over to visit menstrualityleadership.com where you can find out more about the world's first leadership training designed for trailblazers, change makers,

creatives, nurturers to realise our full authority and leadership through the power of the menstrual cycle. The doors for our 2025 programme have just opened and on that page you can find lots more stories from our graduates about what the programme has opened up for them and transformed for them in the world of their work but also in every other aspect of their lives. So you can explore that at menstrualityleadership.com we're hosting a free webinar to explore how the menstrual cycle can support you to step into leadership on july the 25th it'll also be a great introduction to the program and again you can register for free at menstrualityleadership.com.

I think it really, this sort of mental health, emotional health, emotional literacy piece is really helpful when it's brought in early with our young people, you know, those who are coming into their menstruating years, learning the body literacy piece of the cycle is really, really important. And I'm really glad that's happening more and more, you know, fertility awareness, education, and teaching teens and tweens about body literacy. And there are graduates in our community who are bringing in this piece of emotional literacy, which is around bringing cycle awareness into that to really, well, firstly, there's the support of the rite of passage of menarche, but then there's the how to actually learn

to negotiate the ebb and flow of your cycle experience, especially in the early years where it is rocky and more unpredictable and very unknown, very unfamiliar. You've come from this place of instability to now you're suddenly cyclical. It's like just being thrown into, into, onto a roller coaster. So I'm just thinking of someone like Emily Stewart, who runs our program, our course supporting parents to guide their teens and tweens through menarche. But she's done, she's a primary care nurse, and she's done our menstruality leadership program and is so

passionate about bringing this work into places where young people will be exposed to it so she set up a social enterprise called the real period project where she is providing resources and educate menstrual cycle education to young people and also making that available to parents. So that's part of that vision that Alexandra and I were holding is that there are people holding these different rites of passage moments. And I'm also thinking now of Nikki Berridge, who very, very similarly, similarly i mean this is a so she's gone into the tech sector uh femtech let's call it which i think is very cool nikki has created this app called

how am i which is a place where uh teens and young people can track the mental emotional changes through the lens of their menstrual cycle so it's a sort of online therapeutic environment where they get to learn about their inner lives through the lens of mca and isn't that cool i mean it's the first of its kind and isn't that cool and they've gamified it so they've made it really fun and interactive and the kind of place where young people want to do. They're currently looking for funding. So if anyone knows, do step in and show up for them, because my word would be so great if that was really out there. Yeah, which segues us nicely to the massive range of products that people have created who have been through

our program and this gets really really fun so I want to point you to something we did a couple of winters ago I think which was a winter fair where we asked our graduates to share their products and we put them all together on the website. But should we list some of them? So there are artists like Laura Geyer, who's created these beautiful conscious cycle prints. So if you like a visual reminder of your cycle experience, it's beautifully artistically represented visuals of of that and back to first periods there's Nisha's first period box yes oh and lunar calendars Jen Wright created a beautiful

wall calendar where you can track the lunar cycle and how that relates to your menstrual cycle experience and there's ruby's know your flow cycle tracking journal so ruby who's the community catalyst for the postgraduate community the hive has a really beautiful journal that was also illustrated by cycle aware women yeah i believe that nora aura who did our program, who is a beautiful artist, was part of that illustration. Yeah. And the cycle wisdom altar cards that Ruby created with these reminders and prompt of cycle wisdom. And we have to talk about the tiny red tent. Oh, the tiny red tent of Nikki Zavitz of nikki zavitz of pretty river red tent

that's the name of her community and she has created this really beautiful tiny red tent that you can put up inside your house and go into this lovely protected zone um when bleeding to just so you've got it you're you're you're protected and it's almost like you it's a creates a sacred space i'm good uh i love the kind of autistic expressions that come out of this work like tessa venuti sanderson who created these beautiful vulva decorations which I have and which I hang on my Christmas tree every year these lovely uh they're felted vulvas so cool they make really really good Christmas tree decorations it's important to point to the creativity that's often begins to surge through people I'm in fact I'm going creativity that often begins to surge through people. In fact, I'm going to say always begins to surge through people in some way, shape or form when they plug in to their own cyclical nature.

And there are a couple of examples of writers and artists who are creating in that quintessential creative way that I wanted to name. One is Ailsa, who is known as the fairy tale cellist. And I was just looking into their work yesterday, and they've just debuted a totally new piece of music that they composed at the Menstruation Research network conference in liverpool it was called song cycles and it's four movements that they play on the cello based on the inner seasons of the menstrual cycle that is so gorgeous it's beautiful yeah and the other example i'm thinking of is stephanie stephanie frowell moore and her poetry which you were you were sharing a bit more about this earlier, Sharni, how the poetry came about.

Yeah, as I understand it, Stephanie really came to these beautiful pieces of description through her embodied experience of the cycle. So what she was feeling and touching into, she put into words that really convey something of the power of the cycle. And when she participated in the menstruality leadership program that we held in the UK, and one evening she offered to share read some of her poems and everyone laid down and she spoke the words of her poem and it was like an induction into the power of the cycle

because those words transmitted something really felt that she had felt and we felt it too perhaps you could what's the name of her book reading between the lines leading between the lines leading between the lines okay so just to summarize we've looked at menstrual coaching and mentorship, doctors, psychotherapists specializing in the cycle, people helping teens and tweens with their first periods, products, tech, writers and artists. And there are a couple more career paths we wanted to name. One being activism.

And there's an example that we've talked about a few times but it's so powerful it's worth talking about again which is the brilliant Kate Shepard Cohen who has been has created a program which is now being rolled out through the NHS at the National Health System in the UK which is helping to put menstrual cycle awareness into the hands of everybody and particularly people who are socioeconomically challenged who might not otherwise have access to this and it's epic what what she's doing she just wrote to us saying that she was she'd been invited to present an excerpt at at a conference and it's um it's just expanding and expanding her work it's wonderful and it all came out of the insane experience she experiences she used to have around the pre-menstruum

and bleeding and again she came to our in-person training a few years ago and she wanted to do it. And there wasn't a place for her. And she felt almost insulted by that because she knew she had to do this. So she didn't know she was going to go on and create this incredible, you know, work within the NHS. But her soul was like, excuse me, me you know I've got a mission here and Kate was just you know struggling with her cycle she did get a place a space did become available and she got on and it was like yeah I'm supposed to be here you know of course that was the sort of feeling from her spirit and And she did this incredible work of healing.

And that just inspired her through her healing her own experience. It motivated her to create this program. And she has now gone on to create. So she created a program for adults and she's now gone on and created a programme for teens. And her commitment is second to none in terms of serving this. It's truly a calling that's coming through her. It's like almost she can't argue with it. And it's back to the breadcrumb trails that we were talking about at the beginning.

She didn't know any of this was going to happen. No. There was no path laid for this. This is something new that was her own commitment to her own cycle experience. Yes. And as part of that foray into the unknown, she recognized also that not only are we creating a new field of work, we're also needing to create a new language to describe what it is we're doing. And she very beautifully coined this term menstrualism. I think it was back in 2000. And she describes herself as a menstrualist, which is the name that she's giving anyone who works in this global menstrual movement of menstruality. And that's really an indication of how we are laying down a new pathway that those that come after us are going to step into.

We're laying down these footprints that others can step into through what we're you know collectively doing but also through the words and the language that we are having to evolve yeah it's so true shani and another brilliant activism example is from sakshi kalra and she shared earlier this year, in February this year, I was invited to be on a panel discussion for menstrual health and a period positive deli to bring together different people

to collaborate on a menstrual health policy for the state of Delhi. This is a huge step for our state as well as our country. Woo! Go India! Go Sakshi! Yeah, so these graduates of ours that are helping at a policy level, as in Sakshi's example, and then there are also graduates who are looking at creating policies in the workplace and bringing menstrual cycle awareness education to the workplace and menopause awareness to the workplace. And I'm thinking of Louise Ryder-Hesketh

who works with us at Red Schools offering these kinds of workshops. And it's something that Alexandra and I have also offered. And organizations are realizing that this is a real centerpiece in good work culture is to have an awareness of cyclical rhythms and how to care for them. And I can imagine in the not too distant future, big organizations like like I don't know why Google's coming to mind that they are rated for being a cycle aware workplace yeah yeah people come out of university and they'll be like well you know what are your benefits like and um yeah you know maternity leave like and what's your menstrual policy like exactly exactly I'm only working at a cycle aware organization that has very quickly become a top priority for me yeah if only you could find somewhere to work johnny yeah i know

oh dear i might just have to create that organization myself very closely connected to changing policy i think is the research that's being done by people to provide evidence and really to collate academic understanding of the power of menstruality and these different life transitions. And a number of our graduates have taken this on, this writings of PhDs. For example, Karen Abakarum, she's written, I believe it's complete, a PhD to explore the impact and value of mindfully marking the many transitions we experience from menarche to menopause um and so this is powerful to see this kind of thing happening in academia yeah because when it comes to changing the world it has to be happen at all levels absolutely yeah yeah so more and more people doing PhDs around the menstrual cycle and menopause, please. It's just to name again that the examples that we've shared are really only a handful of the wonderful things that are happening and that our graduates are creating and doing.

And I'll put a link to our graduate register in the show notes for anyone who wants to explore more. It's a beautiful feast over there and if you come to our instagram page yeah monthly moment of sharing the latest offerings from our graduates where you can see a little more of what they're doing and how they're doing it and even taste of their offerings participate in their offerings okay so they were some examples of careers that are directly menstrual cycle and menopause focused and there are also lots of examples of people who are very are established in their own fields and then bring or find their way of applying their direct experience of menstruality to what they're doing so someone that I think of

and I especially think of this because the wonderful present we got for you Alexandra So Tor. Yes, Tor, who is a weaver. She is so profoundly and deeply guided by menstruality in how she works and how she approaches the creative process of creating these weaves. So she works very cyclically. So she utterly trusts and follows her cycle in the process of her creating each phase of the cycle informs what she does and when she does it and how she does it and also follows the season of the year and creates accordingly so she has you know times in the year where she's very much more in the visioning place with her work and other times where she is producing and creating and just turning things out

so it's this embodiment of her cyclicity that she's brought to her work and it really shows because there is a quality and a caliber to what she does that is unmistakable. You feel it when you touch her weaves. They hold power. So true. Great. So that's such a beautiful example of bringing menstruality into the crafting art, art making world. There are also yoga teachers who are bringing cyclicity into their yoga classes. We have a sailor, Rose, in our community who is her sailing work is influenced by her cycle awareness experience.

Activists, I'm thinking of Iski, who we have a podcast episode with, her earth activism for the oceans is deeply guided by cycle awareness, is deeply guided by cycle awareness. And the writing of her book, Ebon Flow, weaves in her cycle awareness practice with her ocean activism. Teachers, business people. There are so many examples of this. Basically, it's endless, the way that you can apply menstruality to the current career that you have. Yes, I mean, menstruality can actually support the career that you are doing.

So it may be something that's just quietly implicit in you that's actually guiding how you run your business, how you choose to do things within your business. Or it may be something that is also explicit within the organisation as well. It is really, I mean, cycle awareness is a system of sustainability, apart from anything else but and and within that cycle round you get in a sense guidance it's like a source you can go to for guidance for information on what to do or when to do it it's i've got vision in my head it's like a tech helpline yeah yeah how we can solve this

problem i can't love menstruality menstruality we did it one point start a start a column which was like a you know come to menstruality like an agony aunt menstruality guidance where we channeled what your cycle is really trying to say to you but yeah I mean it's really really so for me I would work with my cycle rhythm to you know if I was making decisions on things when I was menstruating it's actually a relief you know know, it's like, oh, this is not the moment. This is not the moment to decide on something. Yeah, and we've been talking about sort of paid work here, but what you're speaking to, Alexandra,

is also reminding me of how so many of our graduates are bringing their experience from the menstruality leadership program into unpaid work you know into their mothering i'm thinking of those uh for example who are homeschooling and how that's completely informed their homeschooling or unschooling rhythm and uh like lazola who is one of the mentors on our cycle power course, and part of the menstruality support circle on our leadership program. She's infusing cycle awareness into a biodynamic

farming. So it is this source of guidance, whether we're talking about paid work, or, you know, the many other roles and ways of working that we occupy yeah yeah it's so good to shake up that story of career and not just collude with the whole capitalist story there and value the caring the earth tending the energy work the loving the invisible work that's holding the world together. Okay. So in these last few minutes, it will be so great to hear from you both about how you see the menstruality leadership program preparing people to embark on these next steps or to follow their breadcrumb trails into the career paths that they're following where they're weaving menstruality in I mean I'll just throw it throw a seed out to you it's essentially it's calling them home to themselves it's calling them home to their Yes. On the program, we teach them about the menstruality that lives inside them.

We guide them on a journey to understand menstruality as an embodied experience. So it's not just a headset exercise. I mean, we certainly give lots of information, but that's not really, that's just the beginning. It's just the tip of the iceberg of what happens. The menstruality program is where you really workshop this information within your embodied experience in the sense you are awakening to your own menstruality.

And it's the act of doing that that opens up the knowing, the understanding, what you're about. And this is where the ideas drop in. It's like suddenly you get seized by something. And you're experiencing the benefits of really what menstrual cycle awareness can give you. You're really starting to feel and experience that and how that changes everything in your life, how it changes your relationship to yourself. It really, the program really puts you firmly back into yourself.

It, you said, brings you home. And it's that act of doing that that really awakens, well, I was going to say it awakens the field of menstruality inside you but it awakens you to how you want to channel it in the world or serve it in the world it I love this program I love teaching and facilitating on this program because magic happens it is it's extraordinary it is i marvel every time and it's that that fuels me over and over again to keep going with this work it is i mean ultimately it's this work of love isn't it it's it's such heart-opening work and people feel their hearts calling basically but here is taking me back to the MLP that I was on which was in person and I'm thinking about the

meals that we had in the evenings after the sessions and people were like popcorn popping because they were so plunked into themselves these ideas that were coming out and people were collaborating and oh we could do this together and this and that it was it was like yeah it's just that and something that I think is important to speak about and this is something that you share on the web page for the the program at menstrualityleadership.com on this program we don't teach you how to teach this material but rather support the awakening of your authority to do that this is what happens naturally when you're connected to your cycle menstruality will begin talking to you opening you to your unique voice it may also reveal how your personal expertise can serve menstruality yeah that's

very very important so if all of this is piquing your interest and you're curious about how menstruality can talk to you how it can open you to your unique voice we have a webinar coming up how to channel the powers of menstruality to step into your leadership on the 24th of july it would be so great to have you with us and you can register for it at menstrualityleadership.com and in that webinar we'll talk all about the menstruality leadership program what you can expect how to know if it's for you and yeah well you can also ask any questions that you have as well yeah oh thank you you two that was a that was a real feast yeah thank you very much you're welcome sophie thank you

hey thanks for joining us today thanks for being here all the way through to the end if you know someone who's interested in working in this field please forward this podcast to them please share it with them if you haven't subscribed to the podcast please do that follow us wherever you listen to podcasts and thank you again for being part of the community gathered around this amazing conversation about the power of the menstrual cycle and menopause. I'll be with you again next week. And until then, keep living life according to your own brilliant rhythm.