The Menstruality Podcast - 174. The Future is Menstrual (Alexandra & Sjanie)

Episode Date: November 28, 2024

Today we’d love to invite you to dream with us for a moment… Imagine we could look ahead twenty years, to a world which fully honours the power and magic of the menstrual cycle and menopause… a world where the menstrual taboo has lifted fully, and the menstrual cycle is honoured as the sacred source of life for us humans.As you may well know, there’s a powerful menstrual revolution at work in the world… and today we’re exploring how it’s going to impact every aspect of life in the years to come, and how we each have a role to play. (And if you’d like to explore your role in this revolution, how you can channel your passion for cyclical living into your life, your work, and all the roles you play, we also share an invitation to join us for a free event on December 10th: What Could Your Menstruality Leadership - and Career - Look Like?)We explore: How Alexandra and Sjanie got started with this work, and went on to co-create their menstruality body of knowledge. A potent vision for what a truly cycle aware world could look like, and all the different ways that cycle awareness can enhance different professions and life roles.The impact of a world that honours the cycle and menopause for ourselves, our communities, and our planet. ---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. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for tuning in today. Today, Alexandra and Sharni and I would love to invite you to dream with us for a moment,

to imagine we could all look ahead to 5, 10, 20 years time to a world which fully honours the power and magic of the menstrual cycle and menopause, a world where the menstrual taboo has totally lifted and the menstrual cycle is honoured as the sacred source of life for us humans. As you may well know since you're here giving your precious time to listen to a podcast called The Menstruality Podcast, you probably know there's a powerful menstrual revolution at work in the world quietly unfolding. And today we're exploring how it's going to impact every aspect of life in the years to come and how we each have a role to play. In the middle of the episode, I'll also share more about a free event that I'm hosting with Alexandra and Sharni on December the 10th. We actually changed the date for this one,

so you might hear me refer to it on December the 3rd, but don't listen to me, it's on December the 10th. And this event is to explore your role in this menstrual revolution, how you can channel your passion for cyclical living into your life, your work, all the different roles that you play. But more about that later. For now, let's get started with this conversation about how the future is menstrual. Well, hi, you two. Did you know that the future is menstrual? Oh, yes. I didn't mention that. to did you know that the future is menstrual oh yes that is our topic for today before we get into it let's be with our menstrual cycle aware present how are you both doing let's do a cycle

check-in well yeah actually it's really fun that you started this conversation with the Futurism Instral, because I'm on day 11. I feel very much in my inner summer, but haven't yet ovulated. And I'm just aware of how future orientated my energy and attention is today and very outward focused and it's like you know I'm 100% above ground no part of me is below the earth and and and you know what's interesting is in my inner spring, I also often feel this kind of future orientation, but it's much more easier to be tripping over my own feet and kind of losing my balance with that energy. But here in my inner summer, I feel grounded in it there's some kind of ballast in my body which I think has something to do with the fact that I feel very physically engaged with myself and I've got a good amount of energy

and my body feels well so being present in myself and being embodied is quite easy today. So, yeah, that along with this future orientation, something very kind of simple and playful about how I feel. And rolling over from yesterday, I mean, we laughed a lot yesterday, didn't we? I mean, Alexandra cracking some really good jokes about your own death had us in hysterics. But I was laughing

on and off throughout the whole day yesterday and in my yoga class last night I was just laughing through my whole yoga class and I've still got that kind of playful quality with me it's lovely yeah I did almost wee myself yesterday in our team meeting with how much we were laughing yeah I was snorting occasionally losing control how about you Alessandra so interesting I was day 20 of the moon and and I don't feel that sort of you know autumn energy yet except well it's winter outside, snow and gold. So there is that background note. But I don't, I feel more sweeter or intimate with myself. It's like I'm coming into something.

So maybe it's sort of a kind of late summer energy and, you know, how the light shifts, that subtle movement of light shifting from summer to autumn. You know how it just starts to happen. Yeah. But there's, it's a nice energy. I'm feeling kind of sweet and kind with myself. And, you know, I'm thinking of Shani being above ground, you know, really seeing the future.

I am really feeling the implications of this work for the world. Like I'm feeling the future of this work. So I think a combination, Shani, you're above ground and me sort of down there in the mycelium of you know menstruality and how it's working the world so it's that quality of connection to something deeper that i'm really sensing and able to just kind of rest in it's unknown it's not like i have ideas popping in my head i'm really feeling you on that one. I'm on day 19. And I'm sort of imagining it's like we're in the submarine

and Shani's the periscope. We're down in the depths with like the beasties. Yes! And it definitely, I definitely am on the crossover moment from inner summer to inner autumn. And sadly, Artie took the brunt of it this morning. But it was an interesting experience we had together. And I got to see my cycle awareness practice is rubbing off on him for sure. Because I lost it with him.

Because to be fair, I had been trying to get him dressed for 20 minutes. And he goes to forest school. There's like 18 layers of clothing because it was minus two I did feel for the guy like it's cold he wouldn't get dressed and at a certain point I went just dressed you know I just lost it and then I started saying things like I'm not superwoman you know I can't hold it all together for everybody and then I was like Soph stop lecturing your four-year-old about how you're not superwoman but you know how we in the summer can think that we're superwoman it was like a clear breaking moment uh-uh I'm not a superwoman you know because we're in a grieving

process as a family he's lost his mother recently so there's a lot there's a lot going on but then on the way to forest school, I did my repair. So sorry, I shouted at you, shouldn't have done that. And he looked at me and he said, mommy, maybe it's just one of those days. And I thought, oh, the compassion, the self-care and compassion that comes from cycle awareness is rubbing off on him.'s feeding it back to me now it's a really sweet moment so yeah um i need to slow down and take care of myself now for the next for the next couple of weeks so i'm clocking it oh and this conversation feels like a delicious way to do that with you too really grateful to be here with you two and with the um 600 ish people who listen to this podcast straight away on a Thursday every week like thank you for you

listening and to everyone listening thank you to you listening that yeah for being part of this So the future is menstrual. What we're thinking is to paint a picture of what cycle awareness, how cycle awareness can change the trajectory of humanity and life on this planet. Just that little task today. Why not? Let's have a go. and we thought we'd start by looking at the origins of the work so to see where it began where it's coming from so that we have ground underneath us for when we look at where it's going and invite everyone who's listening to come and you know play their role in this in this movement so alexandra maybe you can kick us off here with the origins. Could you share the moment back in the 80s when I was three? What happened? What catalyzed this? Well, what catalyzed it was outrageous menstrual pain that erupted out of nowhere, out of nowhere.

And except obviously there was a somewhere to come from. I hadn't had pain before, but something obviously was brewing in me. And and it was my radical decision to believe in my body. I thought my body's talking to me, I'm going to listen to it. And that happened almost immediately. I mean, the pain kept coming back each month. And I, yes, I made that decision. And so began this odyssey that I have been on ever since of paying attention to my menstrual cycle and therefore, of course, menopause and the place that has delivered me to post menopause. And it's like this whole inner cosmos has opened up from that. But I was just reflecting on, you know, when we were talking about thinking through the milestones and everything, there was some lovely allies along the journey that helped because this was just happening inside me.

You know, it's just little old me chipping away, trying to heal my body. And there were some key allies in this journey of awakening, really, to something. And it's lovely how the universe sort of plants them but one was my boyfriend at the time and who stayed being a friend after we broke up and he would he used to just hold me in the pain because i would not take painkillers if i you know i wasn't in work or anything and i would take the time off work and he would rock me and hold me and just let really support me to just get into the pain rather than run away from it. And it's so incredible to have someone at your back, literally at my back. I was leaning into him and cursing patriarchy as one does, because obviously it was patriarchy's fault that I was suffering.

And I love how my mind works. And, you know, just, oh, the intensity. And it was messy and, you know, it was not pretty. And him staying with me, that is one big tick, you know, just to someone, such a powerful ally. ally and then you know that there are loads of things but actually I'm thinking of the men who stepped forward because there was this lovely other example I was just coming growing into this I'd be a few years now of healing I'm still in my 30s and I'm going you know I'm learning stuff about the cycle i'm learning to heal my body

and i'm actually thinking about you know running menstrual health workshops self-care workshops but then one day i'm listening to abc radio national because i'm in australia now and this is like radio four for those bbc radio four for those who live in the UK and and it's a program it's a spiritual program and he's talking he does these he was doing these little segments and one was on women's spirituality which I was somewhat staggered by that was happening on national radio and then I thought damn it I'm just going to write to him and actually this is one of the amazing things about ABC Radio National, that they always respond to you regardless. And I wrote to him and said, I'd love, did you know that, you know, menstruation is the spiritual opening? And I just, there was no literature.

I couldn't, I hadn't written anything, nothing. But he took me seriously. And his name was Stephen Godley and I always love this so Stephen Godley was interviewing the Pope on menstrual blood he invited me on to that program and I had one of the loveliest conversations with someone and you know my ideas were so young at that point and that was just such an tick from the universe and in fact out of that came um one a producer at radio national heard it and wanted to make a documentary about menstruation i must have talked but it was about the first bleed, Menarche. And so a documentary happened, you know, and this was the dark ages.

No one was talking about this. I was not a credentialed person in that sense, you know. It was just the universe opening these things up. So there are some just lovely examples. And then it all rolled on from there you know workshops and so on yeah because then there were workshops there were more big interviews like the australian press really loved you they did i got you know i got coverage in a way you know and i went back onto radio national two more times you know in big conversations with both books that I wrote while I was there and lots of other radio things and

I uh you know I had invitations to speak at psychotherapy conferences because I was a psychotherapist then and I was teaching on naturopathic courses I would do a session on this I was teaching I remember 70 chiropractic students at Macquarie University and I'm standing lecturing largely men. One or two women scattered through and I'm educating them. And there were interesting synchronicities often that opened these doors. So actually I got into a lot of places, in a lot the least of which was my menstrual health workshops at Sydney's Royal Hospital for Women that I used to do for a year and and so it went it started to build it's extraordinary now when I think back on it how it just kept unfolding

and all I can say is yay Australia because that would not have happened in the UK much as I love the UK that would not have happened yay Australia yay Australia and two books so the woman well three books the woman's quest wild genie the pill is it for you then you two met the great partnership began yeah actually Alexandra and I met before the book the pill are you sure it for you are you sure it's for you came out yeah and um it's so moving listening to your story Alexandra oh my god and just to feel how our the rivers of our lives found each other because I was working as a hypnotherapist and psychotherapist and I was deeply drawn to working with women and had kind of found this niche in working with infertility and really tending to the mind-body connection and a holistic way of working with

what was going on with fertility. And I'd been on a whole journey myself, having been on contraception for seven years. And the experience of coming off of that, I think gave me such an insight into what life without a menstrual cycle was like versus what my life became like when my menstrual cycles returned because I had no menstrual cycle for those seven years. And it was the return of my menstrual cycle that plugged me into something that was so beyond just what my interests and passions were. Because up until that point in my life, I'd just been following what I loved. You know, I'd studied drama and I'd done a degree in philosophy and graphic design.

I'd just been following what I'd loved doing. But there was something about the return of my menstrual cycle that brought me right inside a very deep knowing in myself that was unmistakable, which was to do with this work. And I didn't have words for it or any language for it. But in my therapy practice, I was noticing the kinds of experiences that people were having premenstrually were really revealing the deeper issues that were underlying what was going on for them with their fertility and so I got deeply curious about it and I happened to stumble upon Alexandra's book Wild Genie and I actually remember reading it because I was infatuated with the words I was making notes and underlining things and rereading things.

I wasn't just reading it like you would read a book. I was immersed in it. And it just struck such a deep chord in me, which led me to like find Alexandra. And then I discovered she was running a workshop in London where I was living at the time. So that was 2004. You came to London, Alexandra, through the organization Alternatives, and you ran that workshop in the Dragon Hall in central London. And there were just like 10 or 11 of us. I remember.

There were 20. There were over 20. I remember that first one. Yep. Truly. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That one. Absolutely. It was amazing, actually. There might have been about up to 25, but yep. Oh, right. Because I felt this very intimate circle. And I remember coming out of there, exploding with ideas. And that was really, I was so turned on by the kind of,

the way that you were talking about the psychological and spiritual process of the menstrual cycle. And I started running workshops, teaching about this in my own way and really from a therapeutic lens. And then, of course course you came back to London after the pill had been published in Australia and it was about to be republished in the UK and I had a book coming out the Fertile Body Method which was all about uh mind-body connections to fertility and you And do you remember we met up at that vegan restaurant in London? In Soho.

On your return. In Soho. And we just spontaneously hatched this plan to have a book launch together. And it was such a momentous event. We did it in Foyle's bookstore on the top floor. And we had a huge group of people. And we had Diana Fabianova, who was the director of the movie, the documentary, The Moon Inside You, who had featured Alexandra in it.

She came and spoke. And we did a screening of the documentary at this book launch. Anyway, that was it. We were up and away. We landed up running our first workshop together in Regents College in London and that was it for the two of us we never stopped and then you in 2011 the first menstruality leadership program happened although it wasn't called that by then it was called the Women's quest apprenticeship and Alexandra was out of menopause and you were heading into motherhood and those two potent initiatory processes combined right yeah it's so interesting looking back at the menstruality arc that was underpinning this history and Alexandra you were emerging from

menopause when you moved back to the UK you were really coming into this new country of post menopause life and the starting of that training felt like I would say a real rebirth really the beginning of your vision that you had been holding becoming more realized in the world. Was it like the emergence moment or like the second, the beginning of the second spring? When I arrived back in England, I was really stepping into this new path. You know, it was a real sense of this is the beginning of something. And I did this massive ritual down by the river Wye, really on New Year's Day.

It was extraordinary. And of really declaring my high dream to the world and seeding it in the river Wye. And I thought it's going to go out to all the waters of the earth. And it was extraordinary. And actually everything has come to pass. And so that was the end of 2008. And so I was on completely new turf that was completely unworked. You know, it was just land that I was now starting to work

and cultivate, if you like. And into that landed Shani. And the other very crucial element was that I got invited to Italy to run a lot of workshops. And it was Italian women that catalyzed certain things. It was an Italian woman who catalyzed the whole training. She said, you should run, you should train people in this and I'll come to the first training, which she did.

And that, you know, that was so powerful. So that was all happening in the mix. And then 2011, it all sort of came together. Sharni and I had met and we were talking. We just never stopped talking, basically, from that first meeting. We still haven't, really. No, we're still talking. Your word in edgeways with you two.

And actually, we were sitting in Ireland with a lovely friend there who was organizing a workshop for both of us. And I remember you, Shani, was it you that sat me down and said, OK, what's this training? What's it going to be? And you basically, you know, I just downloaded stuff. And Shani has this genius for taking all sorts of ideas and letting them, orders them and sees a pattern at work. And suddenly we saw this kind of three residential kind of theme of work. It was, that was an incredible moment that Sharni and you,

well, you'd been working with my Woman's Quest workbook for nine months to prepare for conception. And so you were really preparing yourself to conceive and i remember you we were in this little airbnb together sharing this sleeping in two beds that was so close to each other we could hardly move without disturbing each other and um and you were about to bleed but your bleed did not come. And I remember you going, well, it's not here yet. And, of course, it never came because you were pregnant. So there we were, birthing LaRue's quest, and Shani had conceived.

You know, she was growing a baby. Yeah. Wow. conceived you know she was she was growing a baby yeah wow I hadn't fully remembered those pieces and how they all came together but when I was reflecting on all of this it really struck me how the transitional nature of your menopause and the huge initiation of motherhood that I'd entered created the birth portal for this work to really come into the world because 2011 was really you know we call it the light years from the dark ages that you were traversing all alone Alexandra to this really new dawn of this work of this work coming into the collective consciousness and the menstrual taboo shifting and lifting it really started then in a big way and a lot like at menstruation we tap into this calling and vision in a new way it happens at matrescence it happens at menopause and it was such a catalyst i think for both of us yes and

very soon after that there was just such a shift in the collective consciousness a real zeitgeist like i remember uh people started talking about periods and there was a whole thing around period shame lifting and in fact i remember by 2016 you know periods won the cover of Newsweek and they declared 2016 the year that periods went public and of course our book came out in 2017. It was just such a rapid cascading of events and so much momentum that is really just grown and grown and grown ever since then. And we've been in a very strong creative arc with this work. And now it feels like it's well on its way to becoming commonplace. Yeah, it does. Along the way too, you know,

there's been 13 now of these, what was the Women's Quest Apprenticeship, which is now the Menstruality Leadership Program. 14,000 students through the different Red School programs. I'll just drop in 297,000 podcast downloads. So we're about to break the 300 000 which is amazing yeah and the thing that blew my mind the other week when I learned about it that now the hashtag cycle tracking has been looked at 81 million times on TikTok and 50 million women and people tracking their cycles using apps. So it's really happening. But I wonder, I'm curious for you listening, you might be thinking, yes, I'm totally with it. I totally get it. The power of the cycle, the power of menopause. But the truth is there is still a long, long way to go. A long, long way to go. Yeah. we don't yet live in a cycle aware world and as much as there are many people being turned on to this um there is a big vision that we're holding which has yet to be realized yeah like you might be listening and thinking yeah I'm really behind all this but

I still have to show up at work at the same as the same person every day even though I'm changing and ebbing and flowing throughout my cycle or you know like your family responsibilities community work home like all those obligations aren't letting up and you still you know you're ebbing and flowing but the world wants you to be on 24 7 and actually you know this can lead to a huge amount of stress and burnout for us. And also it's just kind of loneliness because we're inside something that the world isn't inside of yet. So if you're feeling that I do want to invite you to come and join us because we're doing a free event about your menstruality life path, how menstruality can, it can inform your calling, your purpose, your career, you know, and we are going to get into how to be a cycle aware person in a not yet cycle aware world. So do come and join

us for that. But for now, like we want to paint the picture here in this conversation today of what becomes possible when cycle awareness becomes commonplace. And we thought we would start by sharing the vision that you two wrote in Wild Power back in 2017. Yeah it was so satisfying to write down this vision that we shared in Wild Power and you know for Alexandra and I something we feel very strongly about is the empowerment of women and how this work really serves to liberate women and reinstate women to their full authority and um you'll hear in this vision that we share now how we're really speaking to women but please know that everything we're really speaking to women. But please know that everything we're saying applies to anyone with a menstrual cycle, even if they don't identify as a woman. Yeah.

Thanks, Shani. Imagine a society in which the cycles of life are revered and respected as the quiet orchestrators of our lives, instilling a deep reverence for the planet and everything on it. Imagine that the menstrual cycle is understood as the heartbeat of that great orchestration and most cru feel that as um we reclaim the menstrual cycle i was actually thinking like stepping into the consciousness of the menstrual cycle process we are first weaving ourselves into ourselves. But in the act of doing that, we are awakening a knowing of connection to something greater than ourselves.

And which, of course, is, well, nature, you know, itself, but also life, uh you know spiritual forces as well it's this process of cycle awareness um awakens us to something greater than us and as we practice cycle awareness and feel how it changes informs us about ourselves and builds inner kindness and informs how we work in the world. We influence the world. We start to organize the world. I mean, now it may feel like it's little over you, a little speck in a great big sort of, you know, organization. But actually, your persistence and insistence, quiet insistence on your connection to your cycle, and then your cycle awakens things in you that activates, that galvanizes you, and you start to affect the field and start to change the field

in ways you cannot imagine with your mind. It's going to come from the inside out. But it will. It does, and it will affect or change the field so that it's sort of almost unbeknownst to oneself, really, something is being seeded. And I was having this whole image of mycelium, you know, that if we restore menstrual cycle awareness to our world, it's like a mycelium that starts to work us all collectively and restores us to connection to life fundamentally. And let it just be said very loudly and clearly,

this is how we're all here on the planet, because of the menstrual cycle. I mean, that, just that's the recognition of that, you know, the menstrual cycle should be central to all kind of spiritual consciousness. I mean, that's pretty mind blowing in itself. We'll carry on exploring the vision for a cycle aware future in a few moments. But for now, I just want to pause and tell you more about the event that we have coming up on December the 10th. What could your menstruality leadership and career look like? This one's for you if you'd like inspiration and support for how you can play

your role in this menstrual revolution that we've been talking about today in a world where cycle awareness isn't yet commonplace whether you'd like to start a new career in this field or weave menstruality into your existing work as a health practitioner a body worker a teacher a coach a therapist or in another role and we'll also be talking about how the menstruality leadership program can support you in this quest. You can find out all about the event and register at menstrualityleadership.com. Okay, so before we get back into the conversation with Alexandra and Sharni, I'd love to share a story with you from Nishma, one of our menstruality leadership program graduates. I decided to do the menstruality leadership program because I was at a place in my life where I was experiencing the most horrendous periods and it was really affecting my ability to work and everything else. So I began this journey of self-discovery and I learned about the work

through a mentor of mine at the time and reading about Red School and what they do was like a calling, my soul calling me home and I haven't looked back since. It's allowed me to really trust myself and trust my cycle. I've grown in many ways but it's held me through my life transitions of pregnancy, birth and motherhood. So Red School gives you more than just a learning experience, it's an experience of a lifetime. And I've done many trainings over the last four to five years. And this has been probably the most transformational for me. So if you are on the fence, you just need to do it. You won't regret it.

Okay, I'm going to carry on with this vision. Imagine that knowledge of the full spectrum and power of the menstrual cycle is commonplace and all women feel the utter rightness of having this experience within them. Imagine a world in which the menstrual cycle is respected as a woman's spiritual practice. Imagine girls growing up in this menstrual affirming world yeah this is really from the ground up change it's you know a wonderful hidden current that is altering the trajectory of things by how we do things through these small changes within our being and how we respond to girls i mean just girls and women growing up you know growing more and more in um into who they truly

are is going to change the dynamic of things in our culture where we are truly resting in the goodness of our own being and a deep trust in our own organisms rather than feeling betrayed all the time or undermined um but or or or ashamed of oh shoot of course shani i mean yes that fundamental shame that we all carry because of this experience. something is building has the conditions within them to start to grow into a goodness within themselves a rightness within who they are and it's out of that soil that their true spirit can blossom their creativity can blossom their power their authority in the world and this is goodness for us all this is goodness for men I mean I just it's it's a quiet authority you know magic at work that is a gift to everyone I have a really clear example of that just from a conversation I had yesterday for

the podcast that will come out soon with a woman called Sarah Jenks and her mum was way ahead of her time and she took her out to the Ritz for high tea when she had her first period and something that Sarah said really moved me yesterday she said the conversations that they had at that meal about the power of the menstrual cycle and the power of her body set her up to have really clear sexual boundaries as a teenager and young adult that's just one of the very concrete ways and I think back I imagine what how my life could have gone if I'd had those boundaries in place you know it's amazing it just ripples out in so many ways yeah for this to uh happen in the world we need a whole new professional field

to grow and become fully established where there are women and people who are the holders and understanders of this menstruality knowledge who are holding people through these significant rites of passage and also educating and supporting those who are menstruating about the power of the menstrual cycle so this is really really important there is um both the personal work that each one of us is doing and needs to do and how that is influencing and changing consciousness changing culture and then there's a professional field that is growing and that is needing to really come to full fruition so that this knowledge can be anchored in our communities and in our institutions and in the world in a very real way beautiful you said this beautifully in the vision i'm going to read it now so imagine that throughout our

communities and institutions there are respected women who are professional holders and teachers of this menstruality knowledge. They support girls and women from menarche to menopause and beyond through the passage of a girl's emerging sexuality and if she so chooses in preparation for conception, pregnancy, birth and motherhood? Yes, we need specific educators in all these areas that are menstruality informed. I mean, obviously, we have birth educators now or sex educators now, but to be menstruality informed educators brings this power in. And it's the missing piece that um is it's going to be a game changer actually i mean particularly and this is your thing shani this whole preparation for um conception pregnancy birth and then postpartum into motherhood yeah so the next piece goes imagine that as a woman grows into the powers of the cycle she befriends her sexuality and is gradually initiated into the full ecstatic sexual power

of the female body yes powered to experience enormous pleasure and sexual freedom and is perfectly set up for the journey to motherhood all women who choose to become mothers are prepared for conception pregnancy birth and motherhood through the practice of cycle awareness and the body knowledge and self-understanding that creates yeah i feel so strongly about this there's so much good birth education happening and for so many birth educators the missing piece is menstruality and menstrual cycle awareness as preparation for birth and for motherhood just generally um and i feel like when that piece is reinstated in our culture the ripple effects for mothers is going to be profound because with all the outer education that's happening about

around birth what menstrual cycle awareness does is it builds this inner trust in one's body and also it exercises this muscle of surrender which becomes everything when you're birthing and also I have to say everything just as a mother surrender is the base note and without a trust in and a capacity for surrender we can feel so bereft and terrified and unheld and isolated actually it's the trust and the surrender that brings us into connection with the power of what's happening and into a much bigger holding of the whole experience there's so much to say about this and we have been threatening to have a podcast conversation about this for a few years let's do it but for now the future is menstrual imagine that throughout a woman's menstruating years she grows a fierce inner dignity about the uniqueness of who she is a deep affirmation that comes through her

mindful engagement with the menstrual cycle. Through years of cycle awareness, she's supported to grow into her full capacity to take responsibility for who she is and the world that she lives in. Yep, it's our built-in self-development program, helping us to grow up and take responsibility for ourselves. It is actually real healing medicine too for, I was thinking, you know, making peace with who we are. But I'm thinking of all the the therapists out there all the coaches you know all the healers naturopaths so on all in these different healing professions or coaching self-development professions and so on how uh restoring if you're if you're operating from an understanding of the menstrual cycle, or if this is central, rather, to the work you're doing with someone, it's like you're bringing in the inner container to hold the healing.

And so there's a container of holding that happens. But then there's a medicine that starts to flow through the active cycle awareness that allows someone to basically like themselves more and more to be able to take their own sides more and more and and thus to be able to mature and fully express who they are in the world and it comes through in the tiniest moments like I could still be beating myself up about shouting at my four-year-old this morning I'm not because I get where I am in the cycle I get the process I've raised a child that says back to me maybe it's just one of those days process I've raised a child that says back to me maybe it's just one of those days would I have raised a child like that if I wasn't cycle aware if I

didn't have that self-compassion you know it comes out in all these tiny beautiful ways throughout every area of life yeah yes and I'm just thinking, you know, in terms of therapists, whatever capacity a therapist is working in, if you yourself as the therapist understand menstrual cycle awareness, you can start to listen to what people are sharing with you through the lens of their cycle experience, which gives you such insight into where the holes in their kind of inner development are, you know, where they haven't quite fulfilled an aspect of their personal development or where they are locked out of some part of themselves. So there's just such profound insight and

it's a very significant therapeutic tool in so many ways and again I feel like this is another whole conversation we could have because there's so much to say about this and the people who come and do the menstruality leadership program who are bringing this into their therapeutic practice are feeling like they have the wind in their sails because suddenly now you're working with an inner process that is kind of evolving and supporting and bringing medicine, as Alexandra says. And you've kind of got that on your side. I'm also just thinking, you know, you know, when I was a psychotherapist, in knowing about my cycle, was just crucial in terms of you know how i showed up for people but it was like it's these different lenses through which i worked with people it was like different resources i could draw upon with clients because you have different um capacities

of knowing and sight and different phases of the cycle it's like something is amplified um that then becomes another stream of service if you like to support um the client yeah so interesting so if you're listening and you're thinking oh yes i want to be able to apply this i just really warmly welcome you to I really warmly invite you to come and explore the menstruality leadership program because it's really what it's designed to do is guide you hold you teach you show you your way to weave this knowledge into whatever it is that you feel called to do whatever your purpose is in this in this life yeah come and explore yes i very much think of the program as awakening your knowledge of menstruality that's

what we're doing awakening it within you and that is the base from which you then can really channel this work into your respective fields. Interestingly, the wonderful men who come and empty our bins are doing that quite loudly outside. But there seems something quite apt about like the shit of the world while we're talking about the future is menstrual. So I'm going to keep going. Thank you. Wonderful, wonderful men okay so imagine a world in which menopause is recognized as a healthy organic step in a woman's evolutionary journey in her deep self a woman knows she's been prepared for this moment even as she might feel trepidation because she's developed impeccable self-care impeccable self-care from years of living and loving her cycle she knows her physical and emotional vulnerabilities and how to care for them

she willingly accepts the necessary challenge of menopause knowing that post-menopause she'll step into the vital and powerful role of serving her community and the world. She knows she'll be profoundly met and respected as a smart, wise, authoritative, and beautiful older woman. I mean, imagine that in a world where every woman coming out of menopause knows that she'll be profoundly met and respected. Yes. I know. It's because she's feeling it within herself.

She's really feeling it. She's earned that. It's so distinct. The menstrual cycle grows you for menopause. It grows you into menopause is not trying to do the, well, we still need the, I'm going to say the sort of patch up job that has to happen when we're not prepared. So now there's all this kind of emergency, you know, things we have to draw upon and we give thanks for all that. But what deeply saddens me is that we are in this state because we were not prepared for it. So the kind of education we need for menopause is actually cycle awareness

and learning how your cycle teaches you about your specific self-care needs, your specific nervous system and the kinds of things you need, your actual levels of energy and how to care for them. And through your cycle awareness work, you are starting to understand this and meet this and take responsibility for this. This is the impeccable self-care. And then as you do that, you are resourcing yourself to really meet the kind of bumps along

the road that start to happen in your 40s in terms of, you know, your life, what you're thinking about your life, you know, the kind of bigger questions that start to come up and so on. The existential questions, you know, what am I about? You'll get, you know, that starts to sort of stir more and more in your 40s. And through cycle awareness, you are inside yourself. You're resourcing yourself and you've got more of yourself available now to consciously meet this, be aware of it, and start to address it. And that actually is your preparation for menopause, you're really building some kind of substantiality in yourself, a seriousness

about yourself, you have to take yourself more and more seriously and not be just giving yourself away everywhere. And as you do that, you honestly will feel like menopause is the next step. I have said this before, actually, on a podcast. I felt like, yeah, I'm ready for menopause. I'm over the cycle now. And there was a moment, you know,

I really felt like something dignified was happening, not a shit show, even as there were very real challenges in terms of what I was encountering about who I was and what was important to me, you know, just about myself, learning about myself, not physical symptoms. Not in a mild way way not a big deal but yeah the emotional kind of workout but there is this

preparedness so menopause i want it to feel like it's special i want people to feel that there's something god i just don't know what the word is anymore now it's still i'm still grappling for it but there is a kind of specialness or holiness or seriousness around it, not as in catastrophe seriousness, but a dignifying seriousness. Sanctity. Oh, that's a nice word, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah.

And there's respect. There's respect. Because, you know, we talk about menopause and you know and some people rolling their eyes and so on and you know the diminishment and you know women feeling like when they are they do feel like they're falling apart you know and our brains less affected i mean that's really really demeaning language and i'm so glad that was not happening for me yeah but yes if we restore menstruality i just think all these different big life changes we move through we are um we are evolved into it we are readied for it we are stabilized into it. We are readied for it. We are stabilized for it.

We have, you know, it's menstrual cycle awareness is this act of becoming more and more present and consciousness to oneself, more embodied in oneself, more connected to oneself. And it is such a profound tool, if you like, or means. And daily, it feels utterly bonkers to me that we're sort of sidestepping around it, slightly embarrassed about it and sort of just coping with it and keeping under the covers and then bringing all these other things and keeping under the covers and then bringing

all these other things in to try and heal and cope and manage. And all these other things are really good too. I'm not diminishing them. I use them myself. But oh my God, nothing is a substitute for, you know, the heart of healing is one's connection to oneself. And really, and in fact, healing modalities know this and are building this, you know, are trying to support clients to build this connection because without that connection, without building that inner sense of worth within yourself, really healing can't be fulfilled.

And here is the menstrual cycle whose one mission it is is to awaken you to yourself and to feel the goodness and rightness of who you are i mean and it's inside us it's free right here it's right here now and really gosh we need educators everywhere in all walks of life bringing this work in and restoring it to women and people who menstruate it, restoring it in our communities. And the impact of this is so radical in the world. And it is actually a very, very, very, very quiet revolution because it's not like I want it to be shouted from the rooftops.

Although I'd love menstruation, the knowledge that menstruation is an altered state and you can experience natural highs. I want that shouted from the rooftops, folks. Just put it on like a big billboard in Times Square. Exactly. You know, menstruation, you can experience cosmic highs. You know, that's what that bled everywhere.

Get high on menstruation. Yes. Learn how to get high on menstruation. You know, there we go. That's your church. Yes, absolutely. But really, you know, it just should be implicate, utterly implicate in our lives and yeah totally and you speak really beautifully and i think we could have a whole podcast conversation about this

about the impacts for our relationship with the planet like the the implications of this ripple out and out and out to trauma healing to changing the consciousness of humanity and to this new way of living with with this beautiful planet exactly exactly because there are lives rhythm is the foundation of life it's sustainability rhythm in all its guises and it's then it's just bringing more and more respect for cyclical life in general, which is, of course, not the same all the time. It's a rhythm of activity and rest, activity and rest. And just, yes, to restore that intelligence.

And yeah, I could go on and on and on. Okay, we will in that podcast episode because for now it feels important to close with the invitation to come and be part of the menstruality leadership program if you're feeling like me right now like your heart is on fire with this then that is a great place for you to come and play but the doors are closing fire with this, then that is a great place for you to come and play. But the doors are closing in a few weeks. So now is a great time to step in. So you can find out all about the menstruality leadership program at menstrualityleadership.com. The curriculum is laid out there. The whole journey is laid out there. There are some beautiful stories from graduates. We're going to be sharing some more stories from our graduates in the event on December

the 3rd. So that's also another great place to come and just find out more about the program, find out more about how it can guide you with whatever, however you are feeling called to work with menstruality through your different life roles in your professional life. We're going to paint a few different pictures of what's possible yeah wow the future is menstrual I'm feeling very fired up at the end of this conversation how are you two doing yeah it's the first time we've really been able to articulate something and I think it's just opening something up more for me now and actually I realize the fuel that fuels me to do this work it is actually

what is fueling me to to do this work is the knowing that I hold in me of what this work would mean in the world. It just feels so huge. And so, I mean, I've only just begun really. I just feel, because for me, it's about love too. I know, I won't go there. Do? No, we'll hold it for another podcast, Sophie. Wow. I think we've mapped out the whole of the next series in this conversation really it feels I tell you what I will say though is from the very

beginning when I started to open this whole thing for myself I could feel really at menstruation which is where the gestalt of everything always used to land. I used to feel the implications of this work. I did not know how to articulate it. I just had this feeling in my bones that was so thrilling and profound. You know, and then I'd come out and I'd go, but, you know, I was without, you know, I didn't have the wherewithal to be able to articulate it. And of course, what's really been going on all these years is me growing into what my being implicitly understood. Now my mind can articulate it and name it and to name how it happens because now i understand how the cycle works as this empowering

developmental spiritual you know creative spiritual force lies we have got such a clear articulation of all that now and um which is of course why you've got to come to our menstruality leadership program because this is where we're really laying the foundations of to make all that possible for you yeah so now you know through Sharni and I working together that's you know that's just what we're never we never stop talking about we're going oh my god oh yeah every day we're having these moments can I say even when Sharni and I went to see Nick Cave at the O2 in London recently we were still talking about it because one of his songs came on and we both went, that was the pre-menstrual song. Do you have a final word, Shani?

Yeah, I've just really appreciated having a chance to kind of dream into some little aspect of what's possible when menstruality is restored to the world. And the thing that I'm really left with, Sophie, because this work really came first through Alexandra and then has grown and evolved through our partnership and through working with the many, many people that we've worked with over the years. It's been this collective unfolding so that we can name and articulate all the layers to this and feeling moved and some movement in your being around what we're saying, to find yourself with us, even if it seems impossible to join somehow now, to find yourself with us because we really need you we really need all of you who feel called to be part of taking this work forward in the world this is a collective movement and we really need the menstruality leaders of the future who are going to continue to embed and seed and educate and grow this professional field in the world and support people individually and really support the

emergence of cyclical life in our culture because we're not stopping until that vision is realized we might die but we're handing the baton on to you so we don't we don't see an end we see you as the ones carrying this forward until it's fully realized and cyclical consciousness is reinstated in the world. Hey, thank you for being with us and staying with us all the way through to the end today. So just now I said that our upcoming free event was on December the 3rd. It's not, it's on December the 10th. So please come and join us. What could your menstruality leadership and career look like? It's 2pm UK time, although if you register, we'll send you a recording so you can listen at a time that works best for you. Okay, that's it for this week. I'll be with you again next week. Until then,

keep living life according to your own brilliant rhythm.