The Menstruality Podcast - 230: How to Manage Anxiety and Overwhelm in Inner Spring (Alexandra & Sjanie)

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

This episode is the first of a four-part series exploring the common challenges of each of the four cycle phases or inner seasons of the menstrual cycle, and Alexandra and Sjanie are going to reframe these challenges as meaningful limits that support us to access the power of each phase.This first episode in the series is the inner spring, preovulation cycle phase and we’re looking at the challenge of anxiety, overwhelm, and scattered focus. And as the outer seasons unfold here in the UK, we’ll we continue with an exploration of the limits and challenges of the inner summer, autumn and winter. Through our personal challenges, and stories from the community, we explore how the limits of inner spring help you to access the big powers of this cycle phase, including play, innocence and enthusiasm. Above all, this series is an exploration of how the challenges you experience in your menstrual cycle aren't necessarily problems to fix, but can also be seen as meaningful boundaries that actually enable the transformative work of each cycle phase.We explore:The key practice to support inner spring challenges: making space and time when you’re coming out of menstruation to cherish your sensitive nature. The deep river at work in the menstrual cycle each month as our energy rises towards ovulation and descends as we head towards menstruation, and how this gives rise to the limits of each cycle phase. What the challenges and limits of inner spring can teach us about what we need at the beginning of everything; relationships, jobs, creative projects and anything new we’re embarking on. ---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, Alexander and Sharnie, as well as an inspiring group of pioneers, activists, change makers 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 there, thanks for tuning in today. Today's episode is the first of a four-part series exploring the common challenges that come up

in each of the four cycle phases or inner seasons of the menstrual cycle. And Alexander and Sharney are going to be reframing these challenges as meaningful limits that can support us to access the power of the menstrual cycle. This first episode is all about the inner spring, the pre-ovulation cycle phase, and we're looking at the challenge of anxiety, overwhelm and scattered focus, which as you'll hear in the episode, is a challenge I know all too well. And as the outer seasons unfold here in the UK, will continue throughout the year with an exploration of the limits and the challenges of the inner summer, autumn and winter. So today we chatted through the lens of our personal challenges, as well as stories from the Red School community, to explore how the limits of inner spring can help you to access the big powers of this cycle phase, including play, innocence, enthusiasm, rising energy.

And above all, this series is an exploration of how the challenges that you might be experiencing in your menstrual cycle aren't problems to fix, but are actually meaningful boundaries. that can enable the transformative work of each menstrual cycle phase. This conversation is also a great introduction to Red School's live cycle power course, which is starting on April the 17th, and you can find out more about it at Redschool.net forward slash cycle power. Okay, let's get started with how to manage anxiety and overwhelm in Inner Spring with Alexandra and Shani. Well, here we are.

are we kind of ever so slightly beginning to be in the spring in the UK? The buds are starting to form on the trees. And by the time this conversation comes out, hopefully there'll have been some blue sky because it's rained every single day since January here in the UK. But no one's counting that. No one's tracking. No one's noticing that.

And our topic of the day is in a spring, which is a joy for me because I need help. help here. So, but let's start with our cycle check-in. Shani, maybe you could start because you have just been through your inner spring or just coming out of your inner spring. Yeah, I'm feeling the spring energies. I'm day 10, but I have a shorter cycle around 25, 26 days. I'm still very much feeling the spring energies, but I'm also noticing today that I'm being a little tempered by the slow dawning of the inner summer energies. goodness, but it has been a wild ride up here. So I had what I have been calling a big bleed,

not in the sense that we normally talk about it, where it's, you know, time out, big retreat. I had a big bleed in the sense of a huge catharsis cried a lot. It's interesting. It feels like it cleared the way for so much more energy to come through my system during this inner spring. For the last few days, I feel like I've been blushing constantly because I just had such a surge of rising energy, sexual energy. I felt so turned on by everything. You are blushing a little bit now, but I love hearing this. I feel like people can see what I'm thinking.

And what I'm thinking is just constantly very filthy. But you can hear also there's a sort of innocence with it. I feel it all feels quite sweet. But yeah, it's been a lot because this rising energy is strong. It has a quality of awakening and charge to it. And it's very physical. So, yeah, I. I've noticed part of what's been going on is a, well, I've been feeling a lot of desire.

And desire is a strong force, isn't it? And desire has an urgency to it, like a hunger. So that's been really hard to hold. It's sort of been a bit, what's that expression, too hot to hold? Too hot to handle. It's been too hot to handle. Yeah, so I have simultaneously been feeling this incredible feeling of energy and the wonderful way it kind of awakens me and the way it opens my heart, the joy it brings, the liveliness that I feel. And I've simultaneously been quite challenged by that urgency.

yeah, and the strength of the desire that I felt. So today, to my relief, that urgency has sort of shifted into more sensuality, actually. It's kind of softened in my system. So I was feeling this thrust or charge, it's very direct energy, and now it's becoming a little more flowing. and curvaceous and there's a little more space, less urgency, which is a really, it's much easier to be with. But yeah, lessons in the inner spring, which is our topic today. I've been schooled, which the menstrual cycle does. So beautifully, doesn't it? It is the built-in

red school. So beautiful to hear. the level to which you can track what's going on inside your body on day to day. It's amazing. How about you, Alexandra? Where is the moon? We're in the last quarter. And it's about, I'd say about 25, day 25, something like that.

It's interesting. I feel a sort of, I felt very kind of neutral this morning and a stillness, like a peacefulness. But you don't want to teach grandmothers to suck eggs, is the phrase that comes to mind, because that will ruffle the waters, if that makes sense. You know, there's a sort of, I feel sort of calm, peaceful, but I'll argue the toss or very, you know, there's a kind of, I would say, a reaction that could easily come,

you know, if I'm engaging with something. So, yes, I don't, does that make sense? Yeah, you're not suffering fools today. Yeah, I'm not suffering fools today. But, you know, I'm kind of nice to be around because, you know, I've kind of chilled and cool and so, but you don't want to, you don't want to be unconscious around me, I guess, really. Yeah. Yeah, and I guess I shouldn't be unconscious around.

around me today. And how has it been for you to? Because you two worked together very closely to be around Sharnie's intense spring energy that she's been describing. Yeah, well, you know, she's firing off. WhatsApp messages to me this morning with quotes for this and that. She says, can you work on that? No, with regard to this podcast interview.

So she's firing away and I'm just, you know, I'm just trying. along just in a kind of neutrality with the podcast. You know, it's like, yeah, yeah. And there was, you know, one thing you shared. And I'm going, yes, honey, that is the raison d'eptor of us of what I've been holding, you know. But we do do this. We say sort of the obvious to each other because it becomes a total revelation.

Because in the moment it feels like a revelation, even though it's something we know. But I noticed I felt like, Shari, you're bloody teaching grandmothers to suck eggs. That's what I'm trying to do with this work at Red School. That's the punchline of it all, Shari. Oh, really? Is that what we doing?

My innocent self trotting along. I feel awful. Actually, that's part of my experience today. Everything's like, wow. I'm having a completely innocent revelation about everything. I'm like, wow. And Alexander's like, yeah, I know. That's what we've been doing all in a lot.

Innocence meets cynicism. Yeah, day 10 and day 27. I hope it wasn't cynical. I don't feel cynical. This is it. We get to be born again metaphorically. We do. We become new to all the things that we've known,

And especially after a big bleed like that, Shadi. And it keeps everything fresh and alive. And like for you to, the language fresh, the new ways that you're explaining the cycle, new like avenues in. Because it's not like the world gets this yet. Yeah. I mean, you've been hammering on about it for many years. But we like 230 episodes now. You know, and it's, and we could have a thousand.

And we possibly will. Yeah. I'm so glad you said that about the kind of unknownness and newness in spring. And in a way, how that connects us with aliveness. We were actually just talking about that this morning, Alexandra and I, about how alive this work is and how it is through our engagement with it and our own experience that it keeps coming alive again and again and again. I mean, it is a constant revelation for me.

I'm so, yeah. I know. I'm just on the revelations. thing for a moment. You know, we've been doing these community cycle check-ins. And I'm just blown away by the power of cycle check-ins. And haven't we just been teaching on, you know, here we are doing a cycle check-in every time we do a podcast. But we do these community cycle check-ins. And I'm going, oh my God. Jesus, these are so powerful. And I'm just having revelation about the power of cycle checkings. I mean, bonkers. You know, we've been doing it

forever. We've been doing it forever and literally as humans, we've been doing cycle awareness forever. Like we have been cyclical up until what, 300 years ago, the Industrial Revolution. Like we used to, this is who we are. We live in cycles. We're just remembering who we are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, Sophie. So I'm on day 27 and I'm all full of the big ideas about life, clearly, and want to expound upon them. I'm feeling full, like a very good combination of finally feeling a bit better after three weeks of illness that wasn't quite ill enough to fully take me out. So I've carried on doing everything. And this inner autumn fire.

So I'm feeling in a really good place, loads of energy and lots of serious, clear potency. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, it's a good combination. And just that lovely thing. being well again after being ill, which is the only good thing about being ill is how bloody nice it is to be healthy and the other side. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So grateful for that. Okay, well, we've been talking about this so far. Innerspring is our topic for today. And we're going to look at how to manage anxiety and overwhelm and scatteredness

because they are some of the core challenges that we hear about again and again. And there my core challenge is an inner spring. So just no pressure, but if you could solve my inner spring by the end of this conversation, that will be much appreciated. I'm going to say something very like Zen mastery, which is your inner spring is not a problem to be solved. It's my hot spot where I'm being evolved and worked and, Yeah, shaped into a more full expression of who I am.

Yes. Yes. You got it. There you go. Well, my core theme in Innerspring is anxiety. Just loads of energy through my system. It feels like it all whizzes up into my head. My thoughts run a million miles an hour.

And I can't keep up with myself. And I get completely overwhelmed. And it turns into anxiety. And I don't know who I am. I don't know what I'm about. And I feel like I can't do anything when I'm perfectly capable. Just that, every month. That's a pretty good description of the limits of, you know, the challenges of the inner spring.

I mean, I, it is, you know, this thing of not knowing oneself. And feeling overexposed, I think is another one. Shani, I mean, you kind of summed it up rather well, I think. Over-expressed. Well, actually, another challenge is just getting too speeded up. You just get really speeded up. And because you're quite vulnerable still, because you've been held in this lovely little sort of egg-like,

womb-like thing at menstruation, it's very easy to get invaded by the world, you know, taken over, really. by the loss of your own energy. Yeah, but the thing I don't really get is in lots of the archetypal explanations of inner spring, it's like, wow, this rising energy, this new life, this kind of confidence and playfulness. And I'm not really feeling that. It just becomes too much, too quick, too fast for a too sensitive system is my experience.

Even though I know all the things that are possible for me. Yeah, and it probably has a lot to do with life circumstances and that there's just a lot on my plate if I had a bit more time and space. But it's life. We've got to work with the life we have and the cycle we have. Precisely, yeah. Weirdly, I think another thing of the inner spring is, and this really depends on your nature, this will happen for me, is a kind of crash, actually, that that rising energy, I don't know what happened, but I would lose myself right at the beginning, actually. Yeah, and there would be a kind of crash.

And what would the crash look like? What would it feel like? What would happen? Lost, yeah, lost. Low energy, actually. I didn't have the energy rising, but that was to do with my chronic condition of fatigue. Yeah.

Yeah, that was happening. But lost and actually bereft. Okay. And we're going to bring in some stories later, which we'll share some other ways that this shows up. And I just want to say, if you're like a happy spring bunny, you rock on with your bad self, because that is great. Like this conversation is more for those who are like struggling within a spring or if you know someone that's struggling within a spring. The challenge that I experience after I come out of my bleed is that I feel this rising energy. And instead of it feeling playful and exciting, it very quickly becomes too much, too fast, too loud, too big for a very sensitive system. And I feel like I've lost track of myself. Can you share what's happening energetically in the cycle here in this inner spring pre-ovulation phase? Yes. I mean, it's so good we're having this conversation, Sophie, and it's so good that you're sharing your experience because I know oftentimes when people learn about the cycle,

and particularly when they learn about the archetypal cycle, in other words, the power, the potential, the gifts of the inner season, it's very easy to feel like there's something wrong with us or that we're not getting it right or we're failing in some way. And actually, in each inner season, we will all have, have challenges, edges. We'll all find ourselves meeting, having experiences that don't sort of tally up with what you read in our book, Wild Power, for example.

And something we really want to offer in this conversation and actually something we keep coming back to again and again in our work is that these experiences that we have in our cycle are not problems to be fixed. You know, there's nothing wrong with you, Sophie. You're in relationship with yourself and your unfolding, your development, your evolution. This is a spiritual path and practice. And so there's inner work that's needing to happen. And And because the cycle is extraordinary, I mean, when you start practicing cycle awareness, it really awakens you to something. It can often awaken big things, you know, big challenges, places in ourselves that we really,

that feel unloved or places in ourselves that we haven't been able to embody or integrate or heal. So it can be very, very strong. is something we touched on in our podcast conversation about trauma. Yes. So it can be a lot. And coming to the experience through the lens of like there's something wrong with me and I've got to fix this is I think very disempowering and doesn't actually lean into what cycle awareness is offering, which is this extraordinary like window into yourself. where you get to like peel back the curtains and see beyond what you ordinarily are consciously aware of.

So your inner spring is this revelation. You're getting this insight into yourself and what you need and your nature and so on. So it's extraordinary. So I really want everyone listening to hear this is that the archetypal cycle is, is not something to measure yourself against or something to try and live up to or something that you should be experiencing. So let's just drop that.

It's a good place to start. Let's drop that and let's have a deep breath. And having said all that, when we understand the archetypal process that's at work, particularly the energy dynamic that's the deep river of the cycle that in a way creates the inner seasons, kind of gives us these four phases and these particular processes or atmospheres that we move through.

When we understand that, then we can start to actually be consciously aware of the creative tension that we're working with and what we're being invited to experience. or to practice for ourselves. So that's what I hope this conversation does for you, Sophie, and for everyone else listening is like gives you a clearer sense of, in a way, what your work is, what you're needing to tend to, what you're needing to care for, so that you can start to awaken and embody more of, the power of this of this phase. So Alexandra, do you want to tell us? I mean, yeah, what a little bit

about the archetypal process, the river, the energy dynamic that's happening particularly with the lens in the spring. Working with the cycle is the, is the art and practice of working with this energy dynamic, how you care for it, manage it. And it is this process of expansion of energy and contraction of energy. So there is, in the cycle, there are this place of, I mean, the seasons say it all, winter, this place of quiescence where everything is still and within our bodies in the menstrual cycle, this is the point of lowest physical energy. And then, so we come into the lowest point of energy at menstruation, and then there is

an awakening of the next cycle. So that as we come out of menstruation, we're riding a new energy current, literal physical energy, a rising energy. And I think of it a bit like an electrical charge going, through the wiring, you know, and, you know, how strong is the wiring? Because the charge could blow the wiring. And the wiring part is our capacity to hold the energy, to manage the energy. It is to do with our nature, our psychology, and, you know.

And our nervous system. And our nervous system, of course. Actually, that's crucial. So that's the wiring, that this charge of this rising energy is moving through. And so as this energy rises in us, it's a bit, I talk about it as lights coming up because I was just thinking then about as this energy rises, it starts to reveal or illuminate different things about our actual state of our nervous system and our nature and so on.

So what you're doing with cycle awareness is learning to feel, you've got to feel that sense of rising energy and manage it, ride it, tender it as it meets who you are, your nature. So it rises, rises, rises and reaches a pinnacle of energy. And Shani, you could hear it in Sharnie Cycle Check in this morning. She's been riding this wild sexual and desire. And now it's reaching a sort of, I don't want to say plateau,

but I mean it's... Like a flowery. It is a flowering, yes, it's a flowering or something, but there is a sort of settling almost. It's that, you know, and because you've been, and because you've been very conscious of it and, you know, really holding it, you can now feel, ah, something gives, something let's go. And you're sort of enjoying the kind of fullness of it, really. Yes, the summer. So there is a quality of sort of let go. and allow when you get to the top of the image.

It's almost like a bit of relief. So the inner spring is like, hold your nerve, darling, hold your nerve, hold your nerve. And then you're there at the top and you can go, and now you're kind of just on the riding the wave, the peak of the way. Yeah, you're being carried. Carried. So what's so important about what you've described there, Alexandra, in terms of our topic, a focus on the inner spring, is you can hear how menstruation, the inner winter and ovulation. the inner summer are places of arrival, places of stasis, and that rising energy is us traveling between those two places.

So this is really key. When we're in the inner spring, we're neither here nor there. We're in a transitional place. And that, just by its very nature, brings a, instability and a vulnerability to it and also an unknownness. So it's, yeah, it's constantly moving and shifting and you're almost in a way having to stay abreast of yourself or stay really with yourself. It's much easier to stay with yourself at menstruation and ovulation because the energy is stable.

There's a ground to it. So we're all experiencing this shifting, moving ground through the inner spring. And that, I would say, is sort of behind really deep, at its very kind of root level, that's behind the challenges that people are experiencing in their inner spring, is our capacity to stay present

with this transitional energy that is expanding very rapidly and moving very, very quickly. And particularly because we don't yet have the vessel to hold it. We're like growing into something. In the summer, the vessel forms. You know, that's, it's like something happens psychologically and also physically and emotionally where it's easier to hold that amount of energy.

But you don't have that yet. You're kind of growing, you're forging something in your inner spring. So it's a workout. The inner spring, and by the way, this is exactly the same in the inner autumn. It's a workout. You know, you can't go to sleep. You can't get to sleep in the inner spring, which is actually very, very, very, very easy to do because this is one of the other things with the rising energy.

It can go straight to our head. When we've got a lot of energy, often our mind gets completely carried away. And we find ourselves in a way moving at the speed of our mind and forgetting that we have a body and a nervous system and vulnerable parts and so on. There's something very intoxicating that can happen. And yeah, yeah. So that is one of the challenges there as well, which is often why people feel overwhelmed or scattered because that energy just goes straight to your head.

Well, Sophie, you're the patient. Free therapy. This is great. You're the subject of today's experiment. Well, as I'm listening to you, the first thing I'm thinking is it took me many years to reconcile with my inner autumn in my late 20s and early 30s. So it makes sense that it's taking me many years to reconcile maybe isn't the right word, to understand the gifts, learn, discover about myself. I mean, what I learned from my inner autumn journey was essentially I'm powerful. I have agency, I'm powerful

and I have a voice so what I'm sensing with this inner spring journey challenge is I've got this story that I'm just an anxious person but maybe my spring is helping me to see what has gone on in my life that means that I have these anxiety patterns

that I kind of I try and control things from anxiety, when maybe there's this, there is this wild energy, this creative, playful, wild fall energy that is actually a big part of who I am, but she's, this part of me, she's never been able to really come out because of conditioning, the way I was raised, societal expectations. And maybe she's what's, you know, this is part of what's wanting to burst through me in in the spring and no wonder it feels scary. because it's not what I'm used to, but it is part of me, like a part of me I haven't embraced. What do you think therapists?

Actually, as I'm listening to you, the thing that's sitting with me, and it came out in a story that we've got from Rachel, about what you're doing there with that wild figure, is you're cherishing something about your nature. So instead of the pathosy, story, which is very real, by the way. And yes, yeah, you're seeing, you know, something that you're holding in your system. And I would like to think as you learn how to meet the inner spring, that you actually might, you know, heal that, repair that. I always hold that vision.

But learning to this particular story, shall I go to it now? Yeah, yeah, read it. Rachel's story. Rachel's story. Ah, where's Rachel's story gone? Oh, there. So Rachel put out this cry of the heart into our, you know, community because she was on, she was just coming into her in a spring and she was feeling a high level of anxiety.

And I find it crippling at times. And she was definitely having that in that moment. And she was basically crying out, please can anyone help me it's like the overwhelm of the rising energy and the idea is spinning around in my head caused the anxiety and she says i'm reminding myself to pace myself and to slowly emerge from the cave although it doesn't help with this nervous system in the moment and she was just kind of asking for any other kind of insight that would help and um i i was just in communication about it with her And she actually went on to do a lot of work with one of our grads.

And but the thing that emerged, because she's actually healed this and she's actually loving her in a spring. But she said, I'm allowing myself to become more gentle with myself when in that phase. And I'm just really hearing this quality of cherishing in her story, of just really valuing, being more gentle with her stuff, you know, not letting that sort of critical energy come in, or and sort of drive the, you know, you're out of menstruation now, you've got energy, you're supposed to do something with that energy, when actually the inner spring is,

firstly, I think, a kind of rediscovery of oneself, one's waking up. And, you know, just think about how you wake up in the morning. It's a process. Yeah. And it's about getting to know yourself again, but really valuing that, just really valuing your nature. And I think that's what I'm really hearing when I listen to you speak, is taking pleasure in this young self, this playful self, this, yeah, and just letting that having that have space. Yeah, letting her out, a part of me that hasn't been welcomed for whatever

reason or hasn't felt safe, letting her have more life through me. Yeah, who knows what I could happen. Okay, I'm going to pause the conversation for a couple of minutes to share an invitation, which is especially for you if you've been dealing with challenges like me in your inner spring. Alexandra and Shawnee would love to invite you to join them for their upcoming live online, guided journey through the inner seasons of the menstrual cycle. It's starting on April the 17th. It's a six-week journey called cycle power, and it's designed to give you a recipe, a kind of instruction manual, to reconnect you to yourself and the natural flow of power within you, the cyclical self-care practices, as they call them in the course.

And Shani's actually going to share more about them later on in our chat today. Here's some feedback from one of the cycle power students, Rebecca, about the course. She said, There's a difference between seeing a place on a map and being in that place. I found the cycle power course like visiting the land that I had. read about in the Wild Power book. My mind was blown away by the experiential way Alexander and Shawnee teach this work. Take your seat, buckle up and enjoy the ride. So the course is starting on April the 17th. There's a free event coming up on April 1st where you can find out more about it

and you can find out all about the course and sign up for the free event at redschool.net forward slash cycle power. That's redschool.net forward slash cycle power. In a way, this kind of leans into the key thread of our conversation, which is how when we understand the archetypal happenings of the inner season we're in, it can really help us to appreciate that the archetypal energy of our cycle is in a way creating certain constraints or boundaries or limits. And the way that often shows up for us is as disturbance. So, you know, for you, it shows up as anxiety or overwhelm or not feeling disconnected from, you know, feeling disconnected from yourself. And that is actually a signal that the boundary, your boundary and the boundaries of your inner spring have been crossed. and actually you've kind of lost that pacing, you've lost that connection to yourself.

So there are, of course, archetypal boundaries that we all are subject to in the Inner Spring, just by the very nature of this energy. Like we spoke about the fact that this Inner Spring energy is transitional. And so one of the boundaries, we will all come up against is this lack of stability. You know, we can't really feel stable.

We don't have access to that in the inner spring. And we spoke about the vulnerability of that. So we're all going to be meeting the places in ourselves that feel vulnerable in this time. And I think, and having that archetypal context is really helpful. And then there's a personal experience for each one of us. We're each going to be coming up against our own personal boundaries in the inner spring. I mean, you no doubt have kind of discovered what those are for yourself.

I mean, I don't know. What have you noticed, like the boundaries that you come up against in yourself and you just realize, you sort of recognize, oh, right, I've crossed the line with something. thing and there's a need that I have that I hadn't quite noticed or caught or wasn't able to meet. But this is part of the challenge that I can't necessarily track that. I'm used to in the other phases of my cycle, like now. I know exactly what I need right now and I will tell everyone about it. I've got that confidence now.

But in the early days of the cycle, I can't track so much what I need. or what I need changes from moment to moment. And then there can be a kind of crash. I'm reactive. I, you know, lose my shit. And it's because I'm not with myself. That makes sense? Absolutely, Sophie.

And I'm sitting here. It's so interesting, this conversation. Normally I feel very inside a conversation. I know I'm talking from a very deep place. unpacking things and respond to this. And I feel like I used to feel in my inner spring. I'm actually feeling a little bit, you know, like ungrounded and like, whoa, I don't know, you know, who I am or, you know, where we're going.

It's so fascinating feeling this. So I want to just really track this and I'm having a thought, you see, and it's kind of in response to you. where the vulnerable places in the cycle, you know, the kind of most vulnerable place, is the place where you need to bring the most. That's the place you've got to prioritize for yourself, like in your diary.

It's like, you know, for most people, it's coming into menstruation usually. But actually, for people who have, like you, Sophie, it's coming how you come out of menstruation and come into spring. So what happens in our spring is connected to how we come into it. And it's just, I'm kind of giving you a remedy now, okay? Yes.

That it's about the answer to most problems with the menstrual cycle is slow down. And it's like almost like, the need to really slow down the film of, because you know yourself at menstruation, you're kind of cool with that, and then there's something that happens when you come into spring where you're gone. Now, how did that happen? Because there you were fine and dandy in your autumn and your menstruation. And it's really about coming back to the root, you know, that phrase, route to rise. And so it's about that emergence from menstruation and noticing, slowing down and noticing, I'm so conscious of your busy schedule. So, you know, you're a mum and everything.

But this is good because that's where a lot of our listeners are at too. You know, it's like, well, okay, slow down again. How am I supposed to do that? Exactly. Slow down again. But it's also about your focus. It's like deciding, okay. Okay, this month, I'm being very practical here. Like, mark your diary, know when you're going to be emerging from menstruation and how you're coming into your spring and really bringing your awareness to that, how you navigate that, because that's like the root of the flowering of what happens, what unfolds rather, in the spring, that coming in.

and this thing of really valuing your sensitive nature, knowing that this is your tender time. Because I'm really, I'm sort of giving advice to myself now, to my previous self, you know, because I didn't know this level of detail at all. And so, yes, I'm giving advice to my previous self here about that emergence into spring and the utter cherishing of one's sensitive nature

because that sensitivity is one of your power, Sophie. It's a kind of spiritual power. And when that power and your kind of young, our sort of young spirit in the first half of the cycle comes out into the world and we've got this rising energy, but we've got this onslaught of the, you know, madness of what's happening in the world

and that push-push energy of the world. And if we're not present within ourselves, that it will seize us. And then we're now we're firefighting. You know, we're back in the old paradigm. We're in our heads. We're in the old paradigm of managing our lives. and we're no longer with ourselves.

And that is such a wounding that then kind of, you know, plays out through the whole cycle. I mean, I'm just feeling it so strongly in the moment now. You know, the bleakness of that. Actually, for myself, I remember, because I had extraordinary experiences at menstruation, and I'd come out of menstruation, and there was nothing in the world that was greeting me.

and saying anything about menstruation, there was no around me in my, you know, there was no affirmation of this extraordinary experience. And my spirit was utterly crushed by that because, you know, my confidence was, you know, not, you know, it was superficial, but deep down it was not there. And my sensitivity, I was lost in the first half of my cycle. Yeah, it would be so interesting to experience it all now with the knowledge I have. But, yeah, I'm just curious how you're hearing everything I've just been saying there. It's all so helpful and so fascinating.

And where my mind is going is how useful this information is because the truth is, I experience this kind of destabilized anxious state at the beginning of anything. It applies to all cycles. I'm thinking actually back to Rachel's story. She said in her story, Innerspring is definitely one of our most challenging phases. And as you spoke on the course, she's speaking about cycle power,

the cycle power course there. As you spoke on the course, it being a phase of transition, this resonates so much. I've struggled with transitions in the past, like going from primary to secondary school, from secondary to university. Yes.

And I'm thinking, you know, I'm at the beginning of a lot of things in my life at the moment. And it's it's about the beginning, you know, it's about how to negotiate the beginning of things. And if I can stay with as you're guiding me to, stay with my sensitivity, stay with my self, then I'm learning how to begin things, which is a great skill to have in every area of life. Yeah. Really, very, very much so. And just to say, I'm feeling so touched by the exchange between the two of you and just hearing how, you know, the, um, the edge that you both have with the inner spring. And I have my edges too that they're a little

different to yours. But what I loved there, Alexandra, was actually how you displayed the application of the menstruality skill sets, you know, what we call the dark arts of menstruality. and the applications of this practice of cycle awareness in the moment in this conversation. So what you said was, oh, I notice that in this conversation, I'm starting to feel ungrounded like I'm in my inner spring and in a way reliving the experience I used to have in my inner spring. and in you slowing down enough, firstly, you noticed that in yourself. You presence yourself with it. And then you were away.

You were away. You were so inside what you were saying. And I could feel you and I could feel your heart and the depth of your, the place you were speaking from. And that is, you know, that is what menstrual cycle awareness is. This is why we encourage people to practice it day by day, you know, because what you're doing is you're noticing what's happening inside of you and you're bringing presence to that.

And then you're in a place of awareness, choice, and you can tend to your needs. So you slowed the conversation down, Alexandra, which was what you were needing. And then that put you back inside the creative, flow of things. And while you, while you were talking, it really reminded me of how, why these archetypal teachings are so significant and why we encourage everyone to learn them. And on our cycle power course, we really get into this because when we understand these archetypal energies, we suddenly have these kind of coordinates. that we're working with.

And this is particularly important. So I'm thinking of you, Sophie. You're like, wow, but I, you know, I don't feel connected to myself. I don't know what my needs are. And the archetypal practices really come into their own then. It's like there's a recipe. There is an instruction manual. There is something for you to do that will reconnect you to the flow of energy.

in your being. And these are what we call the cyclical self-care practices. And it's what we teach in cycle power is this very particular kind of go-to archetypal practice that anyone can apply and it will put you more back in touch with yourself and more back in touch with the power of the place you're in. And Alexandra is really, you've spoken to it there, is. the, you know, the cyclical self-care practice here is pacing. And we can only really do that when we are willing to slow down enough to notice what's happening

inside us. So just in terms of the realities of life, which are the busyness that many of us are dealing with and I am also very, very busy. Not too busy to be really horny all in a spring, apparently. I need some of whatever you've got going on. Talk about it. There's always time to be horny. And actually, that's to my point.

It's like, this is an inner thing. You know, we can try and like do less and so on and so. But it is, as Alexandra said, it's an attention that we give ourselves. And this is an embodiment practice at its heart. So what we're all, you know, what the cycle is always inviting us to do is to feel our body, feel the pace at which our body is wanting to move and to really honor and respect that. And that will almost always be different to the pace at which our mind wants to move and the pace at which the world is moving and the pace at which the demands of life are coming at you.

So coming in here with, you know, one of our other little tricks, which is I'm just really thinking of the context of your life, Sophie, and everyone else, you know, out there and who's struggling with the inner spring, it's micro moves. It's, you know, it's awareness in the moment because you are going to lose yourself. And, you know, I was, we were talking earlier and I was saying this, you're always going to have an Achilles heel place in the cycle, you know. Just love that. fact. Really love it. So you're always going to have an Achillesville, just it's making peace with it. And of course, it's not living in the extremeness of it. It's, yeah. But it is, it's these micro moments of,

you know, suddenly you find yourself all scattered. You don't know, you're in your head and you're now just trying to manage things and you've just, you know, reacted to your family or something like that. It's actually a micro moment of just naming it for yourself. So you're metac communicating with yourself, you're going, whoa, yep. So it's a micro moment of slowing down. I'm talking 30 seconds. I'm talking, just going and sitting on a chair and going, okay, I just have lost myself. I don't know, you know, I feel totally ungrounded, unconnected, my head's spinning. And actually just naming those things, you're starting, you know, you can start to sort of come to, land a little bit. And it may just be a micro dose of just something, but it is the consistency of that.

So you're not trying to come up. I don't have a grand plan to transform it, Sophie. What I have is this extraordinary process of us just knowing, bringing this attention, giving ourselves these micro moments, and how that some kind of magic gets to work in there most of all for me and i feel i was what to cry though because i'm just it is this just loving of our highly sensitive natures i i'm just really relishing my total fucking innocence i was and i'm still a fucking innocent and i will go on being one until the day i die and this innocence that is just so wide open and I'm always going to get undone by it

but it is the most glorious energy Sophie and it's your you have that I mean I know you've got you've got this glorious I don't it's not innocent it's something else but this glorious sensitive nature and it's just so you well interestingly people do reflect all the time that I bring in innocence and I often don't recognize it in myself, but as I'm listening to you,

I'm just tracking back through my life as you do in therapy because I'm making the most of this free therapy session. But it's something got broken in my early life, or not broken, but something was kind of bent out of shape or wasn't allowed in terms of the free flow of my innocent young, wild, playful, messy energy. For whatever reason, it wasn't so. safe, it was shut down, you know, I'm sure it's the same case for so many of us.

And what I want to do is follow your guidance, slow down, micro moments of checking in and like, okay, let her, let her through, let her speak. But, you know, what I'm just what I'm clocking is, okay, that wasn't safe and allowed for me in my younger years, but it is now. It is safe and allowed now. And funnily enough, it feels weird because I don't have the programming inside to allow it, but I'll build that programming. Programming isn't the right term. What were you talking earlier? Like the charge moving through the wiring, the wiring. The wiring to hold that, yeah.

There's actually a story from Anne-Marie that speaks to the pacing piece too. Shall I read it so we can hear another example. So Anne-Marie is post-menopause. So she's working with the moon and the waning phase of the moon. Sorry, waxing phase of the moon. And she did the cycle power course as well. and she said, the cycle power course that I completed a few days ago is truly amazing. I feel myself changing every day, strengthening step by step and better able to face and embrace life's daily challenges. I'm on day 11 in my inner spring and so aware of pacing myself, meeting the slowest part of myself, of making sure I take care of that part of me, realizing how much in the past I would override repeatedly and feel exhausted and how easier it is still to do that,

realizing that pacing myself is even slower than I previously experienced. That is a corker of a story. It really is good. And this, yes, and illuminates too how this information is just as important post-metapause. because I'm, I also, you know, I really, you know, work with the moon as a self-care package for myself to remind myself of that pacing in the spring and so on and so forth. It's a beautiful example. Yeah, we really encourage people who don't have a cycle anymore to come and do the cycle

power course because, you know, as you were saying earlier, Sophie, when you learn about the archetypal cycle and you learn about the cyclical self-care, you've in a way got a way of understanding and working with all the creative cycles of your life and also just the rhythm of your day and the creative arc of a relationship you're in or a business project or whatever. It's extraordinarily applicable and wide-reaching. So it's wonderful. who don't have a cycle anymore have just found it so generative and useful in that way.

And was this characteristic for you in your second spring, Alexandra, you know, after menopause, was this part of your journey? Yes, absolutely. And I see it in many that are, you know, emerging from menopause. And they think of themselves sort of still in menopause because they don't feel really super stable. And I want to say, you are out of menopause. And you're young again. And you've got to find yourself.

You've got to find who you are in the next phase of your life. And, you know, hopefully you've had an experience of something very powerful at menopause about yourself. And now it's, you're in a new land. Yeah, you're in a spring. You are literally in and in a spring and you've got to pace that because you can easily crash and burn again. And then that's it. Again, that's where people think, oh, and, you know, I'm bachelor in menopause. No, you are out.

You're just negotiating spring, which is a bit start, stop, as we all know in England. And I'm actually in the spring phase of motherhood, which has been the biggest initiation of my life so far. And so that it makes sense that spring would be difficult for me now because I'm in a very springy. Everything's very springy in my life. Yeah. Yeah. So this has been very good because we often talk about the powers of the inner seasons. And we don't often speak to the limits of each inner season.

And yet that's what we're all negotiating because each season only has power. because of the limits. It is the actual restraint that the energies of each season bring that draw us into the power, that tap us into the power. So the more we can respect the limits of the season, the more we will come to embody the power of it. And this is something we go into, as I said, in great depth in cycle power. but just maybe as a way of closing out the conversation,

we can just recap what these limits of the inner spring are because on one hand we've got this extraordinary rising, expanding energy, but we have also named that we're transitional, we aren't yet fully formed. So there is the limit of our vulnerability and our sensitivity, there is the limit of our capacity to hold this rising charge. Yeah, so I'm referencing some of these archetypal limits.

And, you know, we each have personal limits and personal boundaries based on the life we've lived, our unique nature, which is something we've touched on with you, Sophie. Also the circumstances of our lives, the life phase, wherever. So something that I really recommend to everyone listening is that you personally in your MCA practice, just pay attention when you're in your inner spring. What is being activated in you? What is feeling challenging? And rather than thinking of that as a problem to fix,

what if you consider that as an alert from your cycle, from your deep self that you have crossed a boundary, that you have met your limit, and then play with the possibility of deeply respecting that, and actually coming into presence with yourself and just feeling as much as you can what it is you're needing. And that's how we do this very beautiful kind of self-care work. through the cycle and through our MCA practice. We notice the disturbance, the challenge, we catch it, we pause, we notice what we're needing,

and then we give ourselves a little bit of that thing we're needing. And if in doubt, remember, your cyclical self-care is to just slow down in the end of the spring. So if you don't know what you're needing, just slow yourself down, slow your thinking down, slow your being down and just come back to yourself. Thanks, wow. Send me your invoice for the therapy session. Very expensive, but I appreciate it very much. And yeah, thank you so much.

And thanks for everything you shared from, you know, the tenderness of your experience, Alexandra. And yeah, that was such a good convo. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Sophie. Thanks for being with us today. I hope you enjoyed this conversation. If you know anyone who experiences challenges like this

in the pre-ovulatory phase of their cycle, please forward this conversation to them. And if you're enjoying the podcast, one of the best ways that you can support the podcast and Red School's work is to go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review. All right, that's it for this week. I'll be with you again in a couple of weeks' time and until then, keep living life according to your own brilliant rhythm.