The Menstruality Podcast - 277. The Connection Between Breathwork and Your Menstrual Cycle (Harriette Wright)

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

After being guided by her doctor to take the pill for twenty years to manage painful periods, breathwork practitioner Harriette Wright was still dealing with challenging bleeds and decided to try something different. She was guided by a friend to try seed cycling, then learned how to track her menstrual cycle and then - via her Yoga teacher - she discovered breathwork. The combination of breathwork and cycle awareness changed everything for her. Breathwork, as Harriette defines it, is the practice of using the breath to consciously change how we feel physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. And today in our conversation we explore the ancient roots of breathwork and the modern day expression, and why it is such a powerful tool for health and wellbeing, particularly when it’s used in combination with menstrual cycle awareness. Harriette is a graduate of Red School’s Menstruality Leadership Programme, and through her own intimacy with her cycle, she’s created a body of work designed around specific breathwork practices to support each of the inner seasons of the menstrual cycle. In our chat today, she shares her MLP experience including how it changed how she sees herself, how she wants to show up in the world, and how she delivers her work. We explore:How the inhale and exhale correspond to the two movements of energy within the menstrual cycle, which Alexandra and Sjanie have named: the via positiva and the via negativa. Simple breathwork practices to support you to rest when you bleed, manage the rising energy in your inner spring, to help you feel confident in your inner summerA ‘recovery breath’ practice to manage premenstrual emotional reactivity.---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.hardyHarriette Wright: @yourfriendltbreathingcoach - https://www.instagram.com/yourfriendlybreathingcoach/

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, thank you so much for joining us today. So after being guided by her doctor to take the pill for 20 years to manage painful periods, breathwork practitioner and our guest today Harriet Wright was still dealing with challenging

bleeds and decided to try something different. She was guided by her. friend to try seed cycling, which we chat about in the episode today. Then she learned how to track her menstrual cycle, and then, via her yoga teacher, she discovered breathwork, and the combination of breathwork and cycle awareness changed everything for her and her experience of her cycle. Breathwork, as Harriet defines it, is the practice of using the breath to consciously change how we feel physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. And today in our conversation, we explore the ancient roots of breathwork and the modern day expression, and why it's such a powerful tool for health and well-being,

particularly when it's using combination with menstrual cycle awareness. Harriet is a graduate of Red School's menstruality leadership program, and through her own intimacy with her cycle, she's created a beautiful body of work designed around specific breathwork practices to support each of the inner seasons of the menstrual cycle, which is what we're exploring today. and she also shares her experience of the menstruality leadership program, including how it changed how she sees herself,

how she wants to show up in the world, and how she delivers her work. My favourite part of the conversation was Harriet's recommendation for a simple recovery breath practice to manage pre-menstrual emotional reactivity, which I definitely need. It was so good, and I really hope you enjoy the conversation. Harriet is so good to meet you.

I've been enjoying your beautiful content that you share about breathwork online and really looking forward to this conversation because although I've got lots of friends who do breathwork and even teach breath work, I really don't know a lot about it. I'm fascinated. So I've got so many questions for you. But first, yeah, welcome. And thank you so much for being with us. Oh, no, thank you so much for inviting me. I have some deep, deep love for the Red School. So thank you. Let's start with our cycle check-in. I think we're actually in similar places. So yeah, do you want to dive in and share where you are, what day you're on, how it's

influencing you today? Yeah, so I'm day 10. So fully in my spring. It's an interesting one because I have been sick and winter opened up my body for sickness. So I'm gently coming out of winter. So I am feeling a lot more reflective than I usually would in my spring. But there is that playful undercurrent of excited energy. So yeah, reflective, yet bordering on a little bit too excited.

And where do you kind of see yourself in the seasons of your life, Harriet? Yeah, I'd say I'm at the beginning of my autumn, definitely moving into that quickening phase. When I first started this work, I started working with, women in the quickening in perimenopause. And I just started to notice some mirroring, notice some of the things that they were saying, was that I'm also experiencing that, and did the medical route and was told I was too young at 38. And we can talk about, you know, why that's not the case for people of colour always. So I was told I was too young at 38, had all the tests, nothing was wrong. Nothing was something, not wrong, nothing was showing

up. I've decided for myself that it is the quick thing and I'm at the very beginning. So I'm in the autumn of my ears, I think. Yeah. Okay, I have so many questions for you about this. But we will get to those because I want to hear more about your story first. And just my cycle checking quickly. Similarly, I'm on day six. I'm also just coming out of a cold. Maybe we had the same cold. So I was able to rest somewhat over winter, but then the cold really took me down like animal hibernating as much as you can do that with a five-year-old. And then I, but I'm feeling better, although I've still got a cough, so apologies, listeners, if I sound snotty and copy. And yeah, I've got rising energy and I've got lots of ideas. And so I'm going to have to like rain

myself in a bit with this conversation because it could go so many places. It really could. Yeah. We'll see what happens. Yeah, I mean, I'd love first to hear about your journey with your cycle actually. So you mentioned you're entering into the quickening. How has your journey with your menstrual cycle been in your life so far? Do you know, it's really interesting. I was reflecting on this morning and I've reflected over this for for a few years. My menstrual cycle and my experience with my breath are one and the same. So I started cycling at the age of 10. I was young and at the same time I started to develop asthma. And there's a lot, there's a big link between coming into our spring

and young girls starting to develop asthma. So I was very young and back in the 90s, obviously, there wasn't a huge amount of people talking about cyclical living. So when I started bleeding, there were, my bleeds were heavy and painful. and I've got this real vivid memory of being in the animal kingdom in Disneyland and just drop into the floor in pain and just everything being so heavy and when I came back to the UK that's when I was told by the doctors to use the contraceptive pill to manage in inverted

commas my bleeds and I did that for 20 years 20 years of not really having a cycle and then I hit 30 and I was like, I'm not doing this anymore. This isn't, one, it isn't working. Everything's still painful and heavy and it's just, it's not working. I don't know why I've been trying to pretend like it might do for 20 years. Well, when there's no conversation about something, we gaslight ourselves, don't we? So you're like, well, okay, I guess this is what they've told me, so I guess this is my experience. And then that's why this education is so vital.

It's exactly that. And when you're in a bubble of people having the same experience and doing the same thing, you just need to like find some way to step out. And did something wake you up? Was there like a kind of wake up call moment around it? I've got a really beautiful friend called Sinead Ali and she just popped the bubble a little bit. She was like, you could try seat cycling. And I was like, I'm sorry, well.

and that was the start of just moving into one understanding that I didn't need the contraceptive pill for contraception off my bleeds and just realizing there was something else and before you move on can you tell us about seed cycling because it's something we haven't spoken about on the podcast did you try it and how was it I have tried it it's not something I still use chenade is the my guru of seed cycling Okay, well maybe we can put a link to Chenade in the show notes for people that want to know. Absolutely. So seed cycle is a way of consuming seeds to regulate your cycle, different seeds for different parts. Some seeds boosts eastern, some seeds boost progesterone. And I say, I'm not the expert.

Okay, we'll put a link to chnade. And by seeds, we're talking like hemp seeds, sunflower seeds. Black seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and I can't remember the other one. Pumpkin. maybe. Yeah, yeah. Okay, good. Okay, rain us in, Soph. We're talking about the breath, right? Yeah, no, absolutely. I just had to do that little time because I've always like, I've been curious about it myself. Okay, so we'll put a link to Shanade. Yes, okay, so Shanade helped to pop the bubble a little bit. Yeah, she said just like, have you, have you tried something? Shall we try something different? Because this isn't working. And then from there, introduced me to mental cycle awareness and the red school and then that's where my sort of journey into reconnecting with my cycle in every way

that it is and isn't what I would like it to be, which is a sentence, right? And that's been sort of my eight year journey. I think in the past four years is where I've sort of doubled down on that, where I've been working with women and the breath in connecting the two and understanding that the archetypal cycle of your breath and also your menstrual cycle isn't for everyone. Yes. And now obviously I'm in the years of quickening. It's been a, there is a grief for not having a connection to my cycle for those 20 years. But then also there's a reclaiming of it as well. So really enjoying having my cycle and experiencing it. it in all of the seasons.

And it would be great to hear a little bit more about what you began speaking about earlier around how 38 isn't necessarily young for perimenopause, the quickening as Alexander Asharni talk about it at Red School for people of colour. Could you say more about that? Yeah. There are some studies and just because I'm mixed race, I've been looking into studies for myself and there are studies that show that we start. earlier but we also start our menache earlier. I started at 10 so I've been cycling for 28 years now and if we think about people who start at 15 or even 16 then that shifts it back. So if you start earlier and you are more likely to

start earlier if you are a person of colour then you're going to start the quickening earlier and there are studies to say that show that it actually lasts longer for people of colour as well. So it might be that I have this experience for 10 years, 15 years, whatever it is. It's a little whisper at the moment. And I am through my Rensual Cycle Awareness, just checking in every day, listening to that whisper and understanding how it's, how it's progressing. And also being in communities of women that are experiencing the same as well, which I think is really important. So important. Yeah. had a couple of guests on the podcast. I'm not sure if you've heard the episodes. Way back at the

beginning, Karen Arthur, who created the Menopause Whilst Black podcast. Because when she began Manipause and she looked out in the landscape in the UK, all the imagery she saw around menopause was white women with their heads in their hands. She was like, hmm, doesn't look like me and not what I'm experiencing. And so she started having conversations with black women about their experience of menopause. So yeah, so it sounds like you know about Karen. I do and I follow her and I love, I love her content. She's so great. And the joy that she brings to it as well is so beautiful. Yeah. And also, Amishadi, Bernie Scott, have we come across her, the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause? Yeah. She's incredible. Yes, so a couple of

resources there. Great. And in terms of breath work, when did that come in for you? When did you discover it, well, maybe we can go all the way back to the asthma. Yeah. The sea was definitely asthma at 10 and I only have really realised when that started to ease was actually when I started theatre and you learn how to breathe as an actor, you learn how to breathe as a singer, not that I'm saying I'm a singer or an actor now, but you learn how to breathe when you go into these spaces and my asthma just progressively got better. I didn't really really notice it until I was out of university. I did my degree in performing arts and out of university. I was like, I haven't really had any sort of evening coughs or asthma attacks for a long time.

I then, and here's the beauty of the breath is you can learn good habits and you can unlearn them very quickly, depending on what environment you're in. I then moved into events and I basically did a lot of unlearning of what I'd learned of how to use my breathing. And I, I started working with a yoga teacher who was very much into Pranayama, so yogic breathing. And she was the catalyst to remind me of how to breathe well again. Because through events, I'd got this anxious breath, I'd got this level of stress within my body that was coming out in my breath. I needed to relearn how to breathe. So I've always used some kind of breathing practice and the term breathwork is such a big umbrella term.

There's so many different practices within that and there's ancient practices, there's modern practices, I guess a bit of a side note on the modern practices. They've all come from the ancient practices. So people that are bringing out these new practices, they're not, their variations on what we already, what we've been. been doing for centuries. And so the practices that I use are yogic practices as well as something called functional breathing practices. So they're ways to breathe well every day and then for me the yogic practices are ways to connect with our cycle and to learn how to breathe well throughout the cycle and giving us something in each season to reconnect with how we're feeling. Outside of functional breathing and pranayama, which is a mind-body breath,

ways to connect our body with our mind, there are things like cyclical breathing practices. So people may have heard of transformational breathing, holotropic breathing. It has many names. And we can talk about changing breathwork with the cycle. Cyclical breathing is not something I do daily for many reasons. Okay, good. We're going to get into that, like going inner season by inner season, cycle phase by cycle phase, which practice is best? Okay, well, this is really educational already because that means I have done a lot of breathwork because I've been a yogi for a long time, a yogini and a yoga teacher and I've practiced pranayama. I just haven't ever known it as breathwork. And so I guess drawing on my experience of that, the breath is such a potent and powerful, gateway because it's always with us and it's both like it's within our control it's a process of the body that's within our control unlike some of the other processes that go on so it is yeah so it's one of the only automatic functions we have in the body that we also have control of right yes and through

that through that control we're able to change other systems within the body as well yes are breathing changes throughout our cycle. So understanding how to change your breath to support each phase is really, really important. But the breath work as a title is the idea is that you use your breath to consciously change how you feel physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. So I like to say in theory, singing is a breathing practice. right because you're changing the way you breathe you're using your voice and you probably are changing how you feel a lot of the hymns mantras studies show that they have a similar pattern which means we breathe slower and that means we're changing our physiology we're slowing everything

down slowing our heart rate down coming into more community if you're singing with others connecting with others, reducing our blood pressure by singing or by chanting. So they are breathing practices that we just don't, we do all the time, but we don't think about. See, like breathworks even happening like in the football stadiums on a Saturday afternoon with the chants going on. Exactly that. It's making me think of a practice that Sharnie recommended to me, really simple practice. but it really changed everything when I was preparing for IVF and I was afraid of being afraid and

anxious. Everyone kept saying you just have to relax and let go and keep it like be as stress free as possible and I was like, stop saying this is making me stress. There was a lot riding on it, years of longing riding on this one experience. And Shani who, I don't know if people know this, but before Red School, she guided people through fertility journeys for many, many years. And she said, Sof, there's a simple breathing practice, 7-11 breathing. So you breathe in for seven and out for 11. And I started multiple times throughout the day, whenever I felt myself, maybe moving into that kind of anxious breath that you were speaking about earlier,

where I was breathing more higher up in my chest, I would go and lie down, put a hand on my heart, hand on my belly, breathe in for seven, out for 11, 10 times. And my state, my nervous system state, my emotional state, my mental state, utterly different within 10 minutes. So this is breathwork now I'm seeing. This is breathwork. I was talking to someone this morning and her daughter is experience anxiety. And she said, all I want to say is just breathe. And I said, well, she is breathing. She's just breathing really fast. The one thing that I say when you're in that anxious state, and that's seven. 11 is perfect because you're moving down into that slower state in the 11.

We're moving into our exhale, which is our coming back to self. The one thing that I said to her was like, get her to focus on her exhale. And that is it. That is all you need to do until she's in a state where she can then move into something like 7-11 breathing or another practice. Because sometimes it can feel, especially when we are high states of anxiety, and our brain's got a thousand tabs open and it's just. all too much. Getting somebody to do a specific count, that feels too much. But like focusing just

on your exhale, just focus on your exhale, can you make it longer? That simple, basic practice can move us very quickly from that high anxiety state down into our rest state. Can be able to really focus on what actually matters right now. Beautiful. I mean, it's so excited, because it's very much like the menstrual cycle and menstrual cycle awareness, as in it's right here in our body. No one else has control over it. It's ours. We can work with it to change the way things are going in our day and in our lives.

Yeah, yeah. So maybe as we walk into like the connection between the breath and the cycle, we could start with the two different movements of energy in the cycle. So Alexander and Shawley speak about it as the via positiva in the pre-ovulation and ovulation phase and then the via negativa after you've ovulated the premenstrual phase and the menstrual phase. And you were just describing the inhale and then the exhale. Could you, yeah, wax liberal on this for us, Harriet. They are one in the same.

And I remember reading this wild power. And I was like, the vias are one in the same as our breath. It's so beautiful. So our inhale as we breathe in, that is our via positiva. The breath moves up. That is we're bringing in energy to the body. We physically take up more space. Our diaphragm moves down.

Our belly expands. We are taking up more space. Hello, here I am in the world. Very much via positiva, right? And then we, as it tips over, we start to exhale. And this is a coming back to self. Everything softens. The diaphragm moves back up.

The belly moves in. And we find this place of relaxation. So our inhale is our action are going out into the world. And our exhale is coming back to self. That softening, that loss of ego that we see in the via negativ. and it's just they are one in the same. The beauty of the breath is that we also have two pauses. So at the end of our inhale, there is this moment of stillness,

this pause that I just, I like to gift this to everyone. With every breath, your body gives you a moment of silence, of stillness of pause. And it's there again at the end of our exhale. And if we're able to connect into those pauses, before we move into whatever the flow is of the rest of the breath, we're reminded that we are, we're here, we're present, we're steady. The cycle and the breath are one in the same and it's so gorgeous. Yeah, it's like ovulation and menstruation.

They're the two, the peak moment and then the rest moment. Yeah. Exactly that. And maybe so maybe you could say, since we're largely chronically in doing, doing, doing mode, via positiva pre-ovulation ovulation spring summer mode in our cultures. We're not so good at the consciously slowing down and resting. We're like we're an inhale culture rather than exhale culture.

And I see this in the women that I work with. So we do a lot of breath awareness, connecting in with how our breath is now, checking whether our inhale is longer than our exhale, where we feel it in our body. And time and time again, particularly generally when they're in there via positiva part of their cycle, I will notice that they will notice that their inhale is naturally longer than their exhale. And it's a pattern that we learn.

So we can start to build patterns within our breathing cycle from around the age of four, environmental factors, the way we're taught, whatever it is. So that in balance in the breath definitely comes from a cultural perspective that's doing, doing, doing, and it shows up in the breath. And it can switch and shift when we're moving down into our autumn and our winter. But some people quite like being able to breathe in for a long time and then out for a short amount of time. And some people like it the other way. And it really, it's so, it's a personal experience, but I see it time and time again with the women that I work with, that there is a tendency to take a longer breath in than there is to enjoy the breath out. And let's start

looking at seasons now. In terms of the breathing practices that can most help us as we move through the cycle, can you take us on a magical mystery tour through the four phases? Shall we start in winter? Yes. No, let's start in menstruation. We all know it's a place for rest. And in breath work, if you breathe in for longer than you breathe out, you're more in an energetic state. Breathe out for longer than you breathe in.

You're in a more rest state. So when we're in our winter and life is busy and you're still having to do some stuff and you're not able to rest, having five minutes of very simple extended exhale practice. So 7-11, 4-6, or just listening into your breath and just making your exhale a second, a moment longer in your inhale, will give you that 1% that Shania and Alexandra are always talking about, the 1% of rest of that moment within your winter. For those that don't know the 1%

because I think it's always good to spell it out. Yes. Sometimes it can feel like these menstrual cycle awareness practices are far-fetched, you know, especially if you have a lot of responsibilities and a lot going on your life. Oh, I'm supposed to just slow down when I'm in my pre-menstrual phase and then just rest when I bleed.

That sounds nice for some people, but not for me. And so something that Alexandra and Shawnee teach a lot is to see if you can find 1% of what you would like to do. Like, yes, you probably want to spend the day in bed. The truth is, maybe you can get five minutes in your lunch break away from everybody where you can like eat your sandwich in peace and just breathe, exhale a little bit more deeply. So that's what we're talking about with the 1%. And then interestingly, the 1% can grow to the 2% and the 5% over time.

Exactly, yeah. And I think also with this practice, it can help us if you do have more painful winters, which I have experienced for many years, being able to just slow everything down, tell your body that you're okay, because as we extend our exhale, as I say, we're slowing our heart rate down, we're slowing our blood pressure, we're telling our body that actually we're okay, we can sit within this, and it can ease pain as well. I'm not saying big pain is ease, but it's definitely, it does help with pain as well. Has that been your personal experience?

Yeah. Yeah. It's something I always come back to in my winter. If it is particularly gnarly. Yeah. I will use that practice just to ease it off a little bit. And I mean, I've heard I've experienced this myself with not mental pain, but other different kinds of pain I've experienced that when I'm more relaxed,

softer in my body, then I can be with the pain in a different way. So the pain might not change, but my experience of the pain. pain and my sense of the pain being dangerous, like the danger signals that are going on in my mind and body can soften and slow down. It's exactly that. It's exactly that. You move from that fight and flight experience of the pain into a more unrestful experience of the pain. I'm going to pause our chat for a moment to share an invitation because there are just a couple more days to join Red School's menstruality leadership program for this year. The Circle is gathering there are therapists, social workers, athletes, researchers, yoga teachers, nurses, lawyers, mothers

and many others from other professional backgrounds and from 20 countries so far. And there are still a couple of spaces left if you'd like to join Alexandra and Shawnee and this global circle. The doors are closing this Saturday. And here are some words from some recent graduates. Emma says the menstruality leadership program was utterly transformative. menstruality is medicine and the MLP serves up a large dose, the experience I gained through the program,

provided me with an embodied confidence to bring my work out into the world. And Althea says, you wouldn't be able to fully understand how much my life has changed or how much you and the other women in the MLP have changed my life. I am all zipped up, a whole complete woman

full of light, dark, softness, harshness. So while I had absolutely no intention of enjoying this journey, I am loving it. Not that it's easy on the contrary, but it is blissful because it's honest, real and true. So if you like to explore the program, you can find out more at menstrualityleadership.com. Okay, let's get back to the conversation with Harriet. And we're moving onto the breathwork practices that can help us most in the pre-ovulation phase of the cycle, the inner spring. So spring for me, and I'm going to talk from my experience, is always really fun, but can be like super overwhelming. Because we have this energy rise, right?

And you want to do a thousand things and then all your tabs open in your head and it's overwhelming. So I always like to say, now is the time to find the balance. to soften into your spring rather than jump into it. So something like an equal breath can really support us within our spring. Whether that you just simply equalising the breath, or you do something like a 4-4, or something a bit more grounding, like a box breathing, I think it's worth saying with anything that includes a hold in the breath.

there are some contraindications with that if you've got high blood pressure, if you've got low blood pressure, if you are pregnant or think you might be pregnant, then hold on for you and sometimes in springs it might just not feel right and with all these practices everybody listening has a completely different body history to mine what feels great for me and for other people that I've worked with might not feel great for you so just listen in to what feels good but a equal breath in spring can really help just to soften into your spring rather than jump into it and ease you through as you get that energy rise up into summer. Beautiful. And can you describe

box breathing? Because this is such a funny conversation because I'm like, I do breathbook all day. I'm realising now. Box breathing is a big part of my life. Can you describe the practice? Yeah. So box breathing, you do a breath in and it can be a count of traditionally people say it's a count of four. Then you pause or hold the breath for four at the top after you inhale. Then you breathe out for four. And then you pause or hold the breath at the bottom. And it creates a box. And in Paniama, you can add a visualization to that box as well.

Create that box on your body. And it's a really grounding, really beautiful grounding breath. But as I say, pauses aren't for everyone. Okay. Okay, I'm not doing box breathing then. But it sounded like I'm doing different. version, which I think my therapist gave me when I was in early motherhood and very disregulated a lot of the time from possible postnatal anxiety and depression. It's hard to tell

I was in lockdown. We couldn't see anyone. But I was struggling. And she said, you need a practice that can help you regulate, especially as Artie got older and he got all of his emotions and his he's very strong-willed, deeply feeling, amazing little guy, but big feelings. And whenever he was experiencing big feelings, my body would go into a highly dysregulated state. And so she said, usually you can find a rectangle in a room. So a door, a window, trace your eyes around the rectangle. The short edge is the in-breath and the longer edge is the out-breath. So that means that it's almost like it holds you to do a longer exhalation. That is the extended exhale in a rectangular form.

I love that breath though. I've given that to my clients as well. Just like you will find something in the room and it will help you. Such a game changer. Such a game changer because especially, I mean, it works for so many things in life, but especially for those listening who are parents, it's not easy to regulate because ideally we need to be in the state that we want to invite our kids into. and it's hard to get to that place but that box breathing has been the thing that has helped me go okay maybe he's on the floor screaming

but I can calm my body down and that will help him to calm his little body down extended breath rectangle my brain's gone to a different place talking about regulation with children humming is a really beautiful one for your nervous system remember their nervous system

there's a couple of things online where you see someone do an om and the hum that slows the child's breath down. But humming vibrates our body in a way that tells us that let's move down into rest. So humming with kids is amazing. Yes. So for those of us that experience anxiety in Inner Spring, which has been my journey over the last few years, it sounds like that extended exhale is a place for us to focus.

Yeah. Or equal if you're feeling that overwhelming. and it's just if everything's feeling a bit too rushed in your spring. Yes. Summer, do you know what? I'm going to apologize to my mum and just be, I'm going to be naughty in summer. If you are feeling super sexy and or even if you're not and you want to and you want to get into your body a little bit more, there is, and this does include holds. There's a practice called Savitri, which is.

an extension of our natural breath. And it is a breath in of eight, a hold of four, a breath out of eight, and a hold of four. There are lots of difference of each three practices that link into different parts of the body. So a breath in of six and a hold of three and a breath out of six and a hold of three collects to our emotional energy. But the body breath, which is where you really get into things in for eight hold for four out for eight hold for four um you do it lying down feet planted on the floor oh it's going to get you going yeah yeah looking forward to this do it with your partner do it on your own whatever you need great to get you anchored in your body feeling lush feeling delicious yeah Exactly. Feeling all yummy and if you want, if you've got something you need to feel confident about,

use that to get out on stage or to whatever you need to do, really get into the body, out of the mind, into the body, remember who you are. That is a beautiful breath for that. Which is such a beautiful part of the menstrual cycle that we spend a lot of time talking about the premenstrual phase and the menstrual phase, I think, in general, because they can be like more trouble zones and sometimes I feel like we bypassed them. the magic of this ovulatory phase. And not for everybody, but for many, this heightened sense of confidence or capacity to connect with other people.

And Alexandra and Shawnee teach this self-care practice of allowing, like allowing your full self to shine and be seen in this phase. And it feels like this breath is a good breath to practice that, to support that practice of allowing. Exactly. And if summer isn't that, that for you, then going back to maybe that spring practice or the winter practice, that might work for you. Because with everything, as I say, archetypal cycle isn't something

that I have always experienced. I'm very lucky that I sort of do now. Spring and summer, haven't always been my positivist, but now they are. So yeah, I love to share that sort of thing. Yes, yes. And then here we go, into the inner autumn, the pre-monstrual phase. I love my inner autumn coming back to self. From a physiological perspective, this is when our breathing actually changes quite a lot in our cycle. Okay. Progesterone will cause an increase in ventilation. So you will breathe harder and faster.

Which if you are somebody who experiences changes, if you're experiencing PMS, PMDD, you're breath getting harder and faster is going to exacerbate those intense feelings. The simple practice for this is to breathe slowly to the diaphragm. Because we naturally want to breathe harder and faster, our body is forcing us to breathe harder and faster, our breath naturally comes further up into our chest. So slowing everything down, placing the hands just above the navel at the belly, focusing the attention down there can really help us to move the breath from up in the chest and anxious down towards the belly. And if you experience cramps or anything just before you go into your winter, add a hot

water bottle. Get yourself cozy. Get yourself into a place that feels, feels safe in this time. And yeah, I think these simple practices are just, yeah, just so important to come back to, especially when we're in that phase of coming back to self, coming back to a gentle breath is really important. Yes. And I imagine that's really supportive also for the reactivity that can come up. Like, do you have suggestions for, a practice that someone could do if they're listening and going, oh, I just, when they get into that aggravated, like, can everyone just earth off kind of place in that experience? A lot. Then what's something I could go to practice that would be supportive for that?

A really good sigh. Our body gives us, yeah. Our body will naturally give us a sigh if it's hit that threshold of being too safe. So anyone who's sighing a lot, you're like, are you okay? not okay because their body's doing something for them. But something called the physiological sigh, which is two breaths in, nice, slow breath in. And then I love an audible sigh out. But it might not be that an audible sigh out is right for you then. So just let it, just let it go, let it leave the body. There's a lot to be said for a good sigh out. And you can add some movement into it as well as you breathe in, bring those shoulders up to the ears, and then just like drop them and let them go a little bit. That can really help that sort of reactivity.

And if the reactivity continues, and there's so many practical tips, something called the recovery breath, which you can do under your breath so people won't know. It's something that they use for asthma and COPD. And it's a breath in through the nose. And similar to a sigh, you push your lip. and you just breathe out really slowly. I do that naturally. Yeah.

Yes. It's one of those ones that like, give me strength. They are right? A couple of those is really going to help you soften down a little bit. It's so interesting hearing you speak and hearing how natural this is for many people. And it's such a simple practice, so easy. to overlook, so easy to overlook, because it's right here with us all the time. And I'm curious if there's something you could share about how breathwork has changed your life to inspire

all of us to prioritize this very easily overlookable practice in our lives. It's changed my life in so many ways, but I think we're talking about reactivity. I was known for being the reactive person. I would bite back. I would just be constantly in my go energy. The fact that I can sit here today and just have a normal, normal like chats and be fairly like level-headed about things, that has been the big change. I think the other change is that I sleep better. I was a terrible sleeper, terrible. Like, I used to give myself the crown of being the worst sleeper. And I can sleep better. Which changes everything in life when sleep isn't good. Yeah. Yeah. And you don't realize until you actually start to sleep and you go, oh, wait, this is

how I can float through life rather than being so angry. I sleep better. And I have a, through the breath I have a deeper connection to my inner cycle my inner wisdom and they are one in the same for me without one there would not be I wouldn't without one awareness

I wouldn't have awareness of the other they are they they inform each other which has literally changed the way I show up in the world completely I'm so happy for you and for all of us Because now you've put together a program around the breath and cycles.

And I'd love to hear about it. But before we get there, I wonder if you could tell us a bit about your experience of being on the menstruality leadership program and how that sort of led to the birthing of this work. And can you just tell us a bit more about your experience of the MLP first? Yeah. Yeah, I remember being on the course and I have a distinct and it's because I sit within the wellness industry, right? I have a distinct dislike of the word transformational. Real, real dislike of it because I think some people say it's some things are

transformational and they're really not. And I got halfway through the course, the program, you can't even call it that. Calling it a program or course or a training just doesn't really give it the gravitas that it is life-changing. But I said to a friend, this is transformational. And she said, well, you never use that word. It has fully changed how I see myself, how I want to show up in the world, how I want to deliver the work that I do.

Because hands up, before I was on the MLP, I, the work that I was doing felt very linear. Trying to get people to be, have a consistency in their lives that actually would never be because they were cyclical beings. Right, of course. Yeah. I think this is true for so many people that get into cycle awareness and then maybe come and train with Red School like therapists, coaches.

anyone working with people one-to-one consultants, they are able to make that shift from, hang on, we've been trying to force a consistency that maybe half of the population that is male or are male-bodied are experiencing, great, good for them, but the other half of us, you know, that's not our experience. Yeah, okay, fascinating. It's exactly that.

And the way that the program is delivered, delivered, sits in your body to a point that you, I just feel like I can't deliver anything in the way that I used to anymore. Like the softness, the community that is built, but also the group sharing and understanding within that course is just, it's so beautiful. Yes, I am forever changed. I am forever grateful for the program. And it has, yeah, it's at the beginning of the program, when I, when I signed up, I remember

writing, I want to bring this work to the women that I work with, not realizing what I was actually going into if I'm fully honest. Yeah. That happens to a lot of people, by the way. Yeah. They're like, I don't know why I'm doing this, but it looks good. And people say, good. So I'll just see what happens.

Exactly. And then by the end, there was this bubble of, okay, there's a problem. program from yourself that's coming. And this bubble was like, it was just all of the material and all of the sessions, every single thing just added to this sort of pot of what I wanted to bring into the world. And when I finished the MLP, I definitely wasn't ready to bring it to the world. I had to sit with it for a lot longer, understand what it meant for me, understand how I wanted to experience it before I delivered it and gave it to others, gifted it to others. And so basically, a year later, this new Breathe with Your Cycle program is to be birthed, all because I went on the

MLP. The thread I'm hearing, let me know if I'm getting it right, is really one of embodiment. Because you're saying the way that you were holding space and supporting the people that you work with beforehand, you can't do that anymore because throughout the, like a lot of people call it an apprenticeship. I think that's quite a nice term. I know also Alexandria Shani now offer an apprenticeship program, which is for afterwards. So I don't mean to confuse people. But as in like when we apprenticed to something, it's not just a process of receiving information. It's a process of receiving and then practicing and embodying in the world. And so now it sounds like the way you hold space is different because you've embodied something. And that is even playing out with a lot of integrity and beauty and what I'm hearing you say about your program that you wanted to experience it in your body first before you then share it with the world, which runs so counter to so much of we see, particularly in the wellness industry, where, oh, we could have a whole conversation about that. and just like the ways that the wellness industry can cause harm

where it's where it's trying to do good. But thank you for being part of the wellness industry that's, you know, modelling this embodied way of teaching and sharing. Yeah, it's coming from integrity. And I think I had already started to embody that. I'd embodied the practices that I'd learned before and hadn't realized how connected to my cycle they were. And then after the AMRP, I was,

like, oh, okay. So what you've already been doing, you need to continue doing and deepen it so then you can share it. So I don't think I was ready. I don't think I had the confidence to share what I was doing for myself with others. And I think that's the other thing that it brings you is the confidence and the understanding and the embodiment of your cycle to be able to then share it with the world. And how would you describe how the menstruality leadership program supported you in the way that you're living your calling or your purpose or your genius in your life? It gives you so many tools. There are a lot of tools within the program and you can choose which ones work for you and the work that you're going to bring into the world. And it feels like even though I've done the MLPM, I potentially might do it again.

I can keep pulling on those tools to be able to confidently share my inner wisdom and know that it is, it comes from me and it doesn't, how do I explain it? It's not the easiest thing to put into words, is it? It really isn't. So this, what I'm bringing into the world is my lived experience, but it is also an inner. knowing. So it's a lived experience and on top of that is an inner knowing and a constant reworking, a constant evolution of me. And I think it, the MLP tells you, told me that it was okay to share it just as it is. Yeah. I mean, the word that comes to me is emergent. Yes. It supported you to.

merge to become and to keep sharing along the way. You don't have to become a perfect version of yourself before you can bring what it is that you're here to offer out to the world. That's exactly that. Yeah. I don't mean to put words in your mouth. That's what I was hearing. No, no, no, that was perfect. I was like, there were so many words that could be said. And I just, yeah, that was perfect. Thank you. Words, words. I'm curious if there were any particular menstruality leadership skills that you were drawn to, that you practiced on the program that you have kind of carried with you or that are particularly important for you? At the very beginning of the course there is encounter and sitting with the darkness that is there and 2025 I've

actually just done a bit of content for this I'm going to share. 2025 was very much a year of sitting with the darkness and understanding that it needs to be there to also have the light within myself and within the world. That was the piece that cracked me open to then be able to move forward with life in general, to be honest. So that practice was just incredible. The movement practice in in the program it was just next level amazing there's just there's so much to it that because now I'm like yeah but also the visualization all of this the whole program's amazing but I think for me yeah encountering the darkness that comes up within every cycle was pivotal to me shifting in how I I show up in the world and also knowing them I

darkness is okay, which I was beforehand very much a via positiva person. Getting ready for the 40s, baby. Yeah. It should have been all about that for me. And can you tell us a bit more about your program and how people can find out about it and yeah, what's going to happen on it and yeah, tell us about it. So breathe with your cycle in its first. iteration. It's an eight-week program where we will connect with our cycle as it is,

not as how others tell us it should be, through mental cycle awareness, but also with breath awareness. So focusing on our breath to connect with our mental cycle, once we understand what that cycle is for ourselves, then building our own breathing practices or our own bank of breathing practices for each person to be able to use throughout their cycle. So then they can deeply connect into each season. Because we all push forward in a linear pattern, as we've talked about so, so much, we'd stay in this via positive a headspace of do, do, do. having these breathing practices to remind us of the wisdom and the power that comes from each season for ourselves,

then it helps us to live more sickly moving forward. So basically, taking what I've done for the past however many years and discovering it and finding it for ourselves. And we do it in a community because I think it's important to be sharing this knowledge with each other and having that sort of supportive side of the community as well. So it's a group program, seven spaces, starting on the 17th of February, the new lunar year. Yeah, I'm absolutely buzzing for it. I cannot wait for it to start. It sounds amazing and to have that community support, but your support, to hold people to actually embody these practices and live them and make them real in their lives. Amazing. Is there anything else that you'd like to share in closing about the connection between the breath and the cycle and the importance of adapting the way we breathe throughout the cycle?

Just that if you're listening and your breathing slightly goes off sometimes, listen to it, listen to where it is in the body, how it feels for you, and know that it's a gateway to something deeper. So if you listen to it and start to understand it a bit more, understand how it fits with your cycle, it really is a stunning practice for people to embody and have as their own little present to themselves for the rest of their lives.

Right. Thank you so much. for your passion for this work. Thank you for the joy and the effervescence that you bring. And just thank you personally. And I imagine other listeners might feel the same. I know I'm going to be exhaling a bit longer for the rest of today. And hopefully for the rest of my life. Yeah. Because of this conversation. So thank you so much, Harriet. And yeah, best of luck for all the amazing work that you're doing. Thank you, Sophie. Well, deep exhale, I'm breathing a little bit easier after this chat.

And I noticed I was so much more aware of my breath as I was editing the conversation and also how much I bypass this beautiful gateway to so much healing and connection and awareness that's always right here with us. So I hope you really enjoyed the conversation as much as I did. And if you know someone who would benefit who would love to hear about this combination of breathwork and cycle awareness, then please do forward the episode to them. And if you're feeling called to join the menstruality leadership program, this is the last chance to join this year.

The doors are going to close on Saturday, and you can go to menstrualityleadership.com. Okay, 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.