The Menstruality Podcast - 76. How Your Menstrual Cycle Helps you to Lead without Burning Out (Alexandra & Sjanie)

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

In today's episode Red School's founders, Sjanie an Alexandra reveal intimate stories about their current leadership edges and how their menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause is skilling them up to face them in a sustainable way.The leadership challenges include;- How to manage a sensitive nervous system when you have a demanding to do list.- How to navigate the inner critic attacks that inevitable come when you have both big visions and human limitations.- We also share about our upcoming free, online Menstruality Leadership Lab from March 7-10 - join us at: www.redschool.net/lab---Our final wave of applications opens soon for our Menstruality Leadership Programme - the world’s first leadership training designed for trailblazers, change-makers, nurturers and creatives to realise your full authority and leadership through the power of the menstrual cycle.You can explore the programme here: www.menstrualityleadership.com We begin on March 31st. Applications close on March 22nd, and as a Leadership lab participant, you can save £200 when you apply before midnight on March 13th, using the code LEADERSHIP. ---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.school

Welcome to the Menstruality Podcast, where we share inspiring conversations about the power of menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause. This podcast is brought to you by Red School, where we're training the menstruality leaders of the future. I'm your host, Sophie Jane Hardy, and I'll be joined often by Red School's founders, Alexandra and Sharni, as well as an inspiring group of pioneers, activists, changemakers and creatives to explore how you can unashamedly claim the power of the menstrual cycle to activate your unique form of leadership for yourself, your community and the world. Hey, welcome back to the podcast. Sorry about the croaky voice, I'm just getting over a cold. I hope you're well. Despite the cold, I'm excited because today is a really special episode.

Sharni and Alexandra are revealing intimate stories about their current leadership edges and how their menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause has skilled them up, is skilling them up to face these challenges in a sustainable way, including how to manage a sensitive nervous system when you've got a demanding to-do list and how to navigate the inevitable inner critic attacks that come when you have both big visions and human limitations. So let's get started with how your menstrual cycle helps you to lead without burning out. Hey Sharni, how are you doing? Where are you at in your cycle? Day 13. I'm happy to report. Only because I feel like I've come through that edge of crossing over from inner spring to inner summer.

And I've really come through something. Today I feel, I want to say newborn, but it has a much more mature quality than that. I feel very ripe. That's the word. I feel ripe. I feel well. I feel joy bubbling up in me. And I was saying to Alexandra when we spoke this morning, I can feel my kind of

creative juice is back. Because for a few days there, I was quite spun out. And I just, I lose connection to creativity and to that sense of flow. And that sense of flow is back, baby. It's back. It's so good. I'm here waving at you from the other side of that transition I'm here on day eight and looking forward to being where you are because I'm so grateful for cycle cycle awareness because this last year I've noticed the my anxiety the epicenter of my anxiety is in in a spring and just now in this moment I'm going so this explains why the last couple of days have been difficult have been bumpy I felt ungrounded I've been spinning out and actually this understanding of anxiety in a spring is helping

me how about you Alexandra well I am feeling I just it's a nice just a good easy energy in me today i'm in the last quarter of the moon so it's about four or five days away from the dark moon and this is the second half of the cycle is my comfort zone. And I move into greater permeability as I get closer to the moon. And it's a feeling of greater expansion of my consciousness, really, actually, that's happening and and i'm sort of able to sort of lean back into it you know rather than feel troubled by feeling more and more permeable i'm noticing that um this is my turf you know this is the country i occupy now in my life and that's meaningful. I just feel in a tender open-hearted space that feels very available for something. Let's hope that holds through the call. Potent place to be. Today's conversation is about leadership and I've been looking forward to it

for days because we're really going to get into the behind the scenes in a process that you two are both in when it comes to your leadership right now and how the powers of menstruality you know you've been working with menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause for you alexandra and how they are helping you as leaders and i can't wait to hear about it and this is all we're having this conversation today in the run-up to the opening of our final wave of applications for our menstruality leadership program which is starting on march 31st this year and in the run-up to an event that we're hosting called the leadership lab where we'll be teasing out some of these sorry about the banging everyone if you can hear that that's aid up in the loft building a wall but we'll be teasing out some of these actual skills that

menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause help us to develop and the reason why we've named this episode how to lead without burning out is because these skills are the ground for sustainable leadership which is another way of saying carrying on leading without burning out and having to give up which is what happens to so so many of us and in that leadership lab we're going to be speaking with these four special guests who all have very different callings ranging from healing to activism to music and theatre to founding whole organisations to shifting our cultural narrative you know they're going to be some really rich conversations and what I'd like to do today is have the kind of conversation that you're going to be having with them with you yay shani i'd love to begin with you

to hear about how you understand your calling and your vision right now today what is your leadership serving in the big picture there is a sort of underground river to my work in the world as a sort of secret agenda, which is now not going to be so secret anymore, that I've been deepening into over years and is very, very present with me. Actually, today I'm feeling it very strongly which is to be in service of love and menstruality is of course my channel for that my teaching and sharing and holding of space for people to explore their cycle and deepen into cyclicity is the way that I am helping others as I've helped myself to really come the holding and the resource and the incredible power of that love

to create seemingly impossible changes in the world, to bring healing, to bring regeneration and expansion. And if I go into some of the real life ways that I get turned on by this, when I see people tap into firstly, their sense of worthiness, the sense of belonging and feeling loved, and the kind of creative wellspring that arises out of that, how people then tap into the value that they hold, the preciousness they are, the calling that they have inside them, the thing that is so singular and unique and brilliant about them, their unique genius. When they then tap into that and are able to bring that into the world, to gift that, to be of service in that way that only they can. That's what really, really excites me.

And our work at Red School and all the menstruality work we do is really in service of that and bringing people home to themselves, rooting them in love, connecting them to their calling, and then supporting them to activate their leadership, but also supporting them on the unfolding path of leadership, which is a journey. It's a whole process that is lifelong and I get really really excited about the kind of skill that that takes and the means by which we can do that and how cycle awareness is such a profound aid and holding in that process for people. That's beautiful to hear, Sharni. Alexandra, I'd love to hear from you. It's really, really beautiful.

And as you were speaking, Sharni, I liked how you talked about the deep river that's sort of organising, you know, what's happening on the surface, i.e. our work with menstruality. And my deep river, the essence of what I'm here to serve in the world, this has been with me forever, really. And it was only in my, probably in my early 40s, in a conversation with someone, I suddenly found the words for it. And the words that came were that I am caring for the ineffable. And that's another way of talking about caring for soul or even caring for the feminine. But I don't like quite to conflate all those words into one because each of them has a something

about them. But that word ineffable for me is the most potent. And, you know, the ineffable is the unknown. It is, you know, it's not concrete. It's a nothing. And as I dream into that world, you know, and I feel moved thinking about it, it is about caring for the mystery. There is an unknownness surrounding us and with us that is with us. It's with us in that it's a reality. It's a presence. It's not a nothing. And the thought that came to me as you were speaking, Shani, is that is how when we touch into this and trust this ineffable presence, we can evolve. It's evolutionary that we can actually imagine and create new worlds that care for life rather than getting caught in repeating the endless cycle of current reality and, you know, more trauma and more drama.

But that if we care for mystery, care for the ineffable, and we dare to trust it. And do you know what? I think I'm bloody good at that. We've come back to that. that it turns out you so are you so are that we can actually start to carve new pathways and it's what you were talking about shani about the calling that i'm amazed by endlessly by how original and creative we are as humans. You know, it really that there is so much resourcefulness and brilliance held in each of us

that needs to be unlocked. And because it could, you know, it will bring something to the world that will help us to shift things. And it is so that we use that word calling, and you actually articulated it really beautifully, Shani. So, of course, the vessel through which I do this evolutionary work is menstruality. And I am particularly in love with both what happens at menstruation and what happens at menopause, because menstruation and menopause are these extraordinary portal opening moments to the ineffable and the cycle gives you very precise instructions about how to negotiate being able to step into that space and menopause and of course all your menstruating years are your instruction manual for being able to step into um but menopause itself what what starts to happen leading into coming into menopause um supports you to dare to step into that ineffability and to let your psyches receive something that is a pathway into a new future

I'm really moved by watching you both speak is the aliveness that animates you both when you as you were getting closer and closer to finding words to express what is often wordless this sense of calling your but the way you're holding your body's change and there was a flush on your face and there's so much life and vitality in this calling and all of us coming closer to our callings which is good because the actual living out of this calling is hard you need you need to be really resourced to do it and where I'd love to go next is to look at the real world fulfillment of these callings that you're carrying through the lens of what are the current edges for you like or what's what's the point of evolution that's working you as a leader and and this is a big i just want to name that this is a big definition of leadership that we're

bringing here which is each of us tending to the new thing that we're birthing into the world through this engagement with the mystery we're not talking about being in a particular position of political power or creating an organization necessarily. That might be how it lives itself out, but it's each of us has this leadership capacity and this leadership going on within us. So with your leadership as the founders of Red School, what's your edge currently and what menstruality skills are you calling on to help you with these edges yeah it's um it's easy to answer Sophie because I find following my calling to be full of challenge, full of edge, full of learning. It's sort of nonstop, really. And what you said there around, you know, how you reflected back the kind of aliveness and resource that you felt in us as we were describing our calling,

I have to say that is everything is actually feeling the aliveness and holding of my calling so rather than my calling being this thing that I must serve I'm learning more and more to feel it as this power or force that is serving me or supporting me as I serve, as I do the work that I do. So I just wanted to catch that piece because I think that's been such a big learning for me from my practice of cycle awareness when i dock into that administration and i feel the love and i feel the the call in me i also feel the incredible holding of that. And that's what gives me so much strength. In a way, that is my touchstone that I keep coming back to.

Those are the roots that allow me to continue to grow and expand and branch out. So, yeah, right now I'm in a place where the heat is up. And I notice this every time we take another step and bring something new into the world. Every time we do something new, basically, which is often. Too often. There is an evolution that needs to happen in me. I need to grow up. I need to grow the capacity to be able to care for and hold what it is I'm birthing in the world.

So could you give a practical example of what that looks like now? What's one of the new things that's being birthed that's asking you to grow? Okay, so the Menstruality Leadership Program 2023 is a new version. We've created or are creating a new version for this Menstruality Leadership Program. And our creative ideas have really evolved. And what we're going to be sharing at this menstruality leadership program is a real upgrade. It's going to demand so much more of us and is going to evoke so much more in people. It's going to catalyze more. It's going to have more impact. It has more power.

And so the kind of lead up to that is much like what I experienced when I was giving birth. There is this kind of moment of pressure where things come to a head and the baby has been in this comfortable kind of spacious womb gestating and now it needs to make passage through this tiny birth canal and that requires enormous pressure and um uh um and i want to say contract, like going through the eye of the needle. And I have actually heard, I don't know all the details of this, but I have actually heard that the pressure that that baby goes through in the birth canal is what prepares it for life outside the womb,

the kind of pressure on the lungs and the pressure on the body prepares it to be able to take its first breath wow so yeah so that's what i feel like i mean i feel like i'm in this pressure cooker and um yeah and so it for me the way that shows up is suddenly there's just too much to do. I have this like, oh, God, I've bitten off more than I can chew. This is impossible. And it's not just about the MLP. It's all the things that are happening in the lead up to the MLP are all just stretching me, taking me out of my comfort zone, asking more of me.

It's like the pace has picked up. There's a quickening. So I feel less resourced. My resources have been pulled out from under me. I'm more tired. My sleep has been messed up. That's all the classic chaos that people often talk about in menopause. And certainly I feel towards the end of my cycle each month. So it has that quality Sophie and I really hear you and I know so many people will relate to this what skills are you drawing on that your cycle has tutored you in to hold you through this big squeeze that you're in. Yeah. Okay.

So the one thing I didn't mention there in the, in the sort of, well, how am I experiencing this? So one of the other things I should just name is that part of this sort of evolutionary edge that I'm in. So along with being unresourced, I feel outside of my comfort zone and therefore more vulnerable and vulnerability is just like a red rag to a bull when it comes to the inner critic so my inner critic is salivating and just so true fading's like oh yeah it's just field day for my inner critic whenever we step outside of our comfort zone that's what happens so my inner critic is there it's right here okay so the the first thing which is everything for me is that I have context

and that context has come through my experience of menstrual cycle awareness. It's the context of the process of expansion and contraction that happens every month, the process of death and rebirth. I have that context and I know that when things get tough and I feel out of my depth and challenged and disturbed and my stress personality kicks in, I know that I'm on the brink of expansion. I know I'm on the brink of new life and I know I'm on the brink of coming into the kind of holding that is going to prepare me for what's coming next. So I have that context which I'm so grateful for. Ventral cycle awareness has really given me that. The other skills I'm drawing on are, it's one of the dark arts, which we are going to be teaching on the Men's Stralicy Leadership Program and talking about in the Leadership Lab as well, is this dark art of restedness. And it's something that I'm still learning, but I've discovered, and this was when I first really got this, it was such a paradigm shift for me, that when life is asking more of me, rather than trying to do more or sort of override something or push myself is to kind of lean back in and resource myself, take better care of myself, come home to myself.

It's this quality of sort of softening in rather than trying to push through. I experienced that as well when I was giving birth in the final stages of labor. In the face of such intensity, that capacity for surrender of just realizing there's something much bigger than me coming through me and that I am actually in safe hands. It's that. This is a big creative process I'm in. There is a big force at work, working through me. And I can trust that I can lean back into that. And the knowing of that, that I felt time and time again when I've crossed the void into menstruation, where the temptation is to spin out into the drama and kind of go into my trauma, to have the awareness and go, ah, I'm being held in this. You know, Alexandra spoke about the ineffable being with us. That's what it is for me is the sort of, in those moments,

the remembering of life being with me and the feeling of the presence of love with me so yes I'm really drawing on that Sophie and in everyday terms that means like yes self-care it's like in every freaking moment I have if I have five minutes, I'm doing deep breathing. You know, if I've got 10 minutes, I'm outside on the grass, or I'm doing a forward bend, or I'm, you know, it's that and really keeping my diet good and keeping moving, I need more exercise. So it's sort of like becomes a very disciplined holding of myself to make sure that I'm keeping my nervous system and my being as well tended as I can to really meet the intensity and to meet the challenge without being destroyed by it and without kind of retreating back into my little self. Yes. And this is everything when it comes to your work being

sustainable. It's those five minutes, those 10 minutes, and that bigger picture leaning back. That means that you keep getting up every day and doing the, you know, ending to the to-do list that is always long and is always asking stretch from you. Yes. And can I add another meaning to that word sustainable? Because it is about sustainable as in not burning out and staying well-resourced, but it's also sustainable because when we reach these evolutionary edges in our leadership, which we do over and over and over again, there is an option not to pass through that evolutionary gateway. There is an option to stay stuck or to be paralyzed or to not be able to meet that invitation and expand.

And we all do it. I do it too. I sometimes meet edges and I'm just like, I get pulled back. And if we want our leadership to be sustainable we need to let ourselves be worked by this evolutionary process we need to keep growing that's also part of sustainability is the ongoing growth of who we are so that our vision can continue to expand and be fulfilled in the world so that's another really key part of the sustainable leadership. Many of us are feeling called to this new way of leading, as Sharni just referred to it,

this sustainable way, this intuitive way, this relational way. And it's why it's so important to share stories from people who are working at the edge of their personal and our collective evolution when it comes to leadership. In our upcoming free menstruality leadership lab, Alexandra and Shani are going to share more about their leadership challenges and how their menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause is skilling them up to face these challenges and they'll also be interviewing four special guests about their leadership edges and the inner skills they're cultivating as they step up to live their calling. We'll be joined by a medicine woman Asha Frost who's an indigenous healer author and spiritual mentor an activist Amisha Gadiali the creator of the all that we are podcast a musician period preacher and folk singer Lucy

Peach and a founder Susanna Darling-Khan the co-founder of the school of movement medicine so we invite you to join us for a free four-day online leadership gathering to embrace the hidden powers of the menstrual cycle and menopause to lead sustainably with heart integrity and wisdom it's from the 7th to the 10th of march and you can take your seat at redschool.net forward slash lab that's redschool.net forward slash lab. That's redschool.net forward slash lab. I love the way you speak about menstruation as being a docking in moment for this restedness, Sharni. There's a ritual that I've brought back in this year which I've done twice now and is so helpful for me to remember that I'm held is I'm using my moon cup again and I save up all of my blood and put

it in a bottle in the fridge at the back of the fridge so when guests come over they must wonder what that is it's my pot of menstrual blood and on sort of day four or five depending on when the blood stops I take it down to this beautiful river that I live next to and it's such a resource for me and it's been cold but you'll be proud of me because you're cold water folk I take my socks and shoes off and I step into that river and I get my blood and along the walk along the river I've been dreaming into my intentions for for this month and and as I'm pouring the blood in the river and giving that offering I imagine the river as my calling and this is me stepping into this wonderful natural organic force that is absolutely working its magic all the time that river's down there flowing right now and I'm up here doing this. And that's a very visceral, tangible reminder for me of,

oh, I'm inside something here. It's not this little game that I'm making up. I can lean back. It's so helpful. Yeah. It's great to hear from you, Shani. And Alexandra, I would love to pass the talking stick to you and ask what edges are you seeing and what skills are you calling on? It's not dissimilar to Sharni, because it's a bit like opening Pandora's box. When you step up to leadership, you just release all these things all these the responsibilities that come and and also just what it takes to create something so you've got the process of creating something and then the responsibility of caring for it and to sort of segue into what i want to speak i just want to acknowledge also what shani said about being held by something because i could only do this work because i feel held in something by

the ineffable by i've had enough years of living now and of this cyclical consciousness working me to really trust there's no argument in me well occasionally i little wine with god but there is such a built-in trust now and that grows with time so it almost grows with you as what you're doing grows because when you start off it's small and you're a bit small and shiny talked about our leadership growing us so we have to grow to be able to hold it so there's this lovely dance that goes on and and it doesn't seem to stop sometimes it's always just the next evolutionary edge so what what helps me is what Shani was saying about this container being held in something, being nourished by my vision. So but within that, what's very pertinent for me is just as Shani said, there's so many jobs to do. And I've got this very sensitive nervous system.

You know, I've struggled. I struggled rather, I'm going to say, with my health horribly over the years. There were bleak, bleak years where I was completely decked. And it's very, very, very distressing when you have a huge calling. I mean, I can feel tears in me thinking about myself then and just, you know, not sleeping and just the terrible exhaustion and so on. And what it's taken to sort of stay with that. So anyway, today I'm in a radically different place, but I still have to take care of myself, of my nervous system.

And I cannot push myself over the line of, you know, overriding myself. And yet there are all these jobs that have to be done. And it's a bit of a, for want of a better word, a bit of a mind fuck sometimes phrase when i think of oh yes there's x amount of time and we've got to do x amount of jobs i don't think the sums add up here so what do I call on? What dark arts, what skills am I really fiercely cultivating?

And as I was holding that question, you know, when Shani was speaking, you know, one of the really interesting ones is this word, this dark art of restraint. It's so interesting rather than going faster. I, and it's a real act of agency and choicefulness, but it does rest in this trust where I go, I just pull back. I just, I work within very defined boundaries that I'm not going to time boundaries. And actually, there's another dark art I draw on very strongly. So there's this restraint, but then there's this intentionality.

Really use intentionality. So restraint stops me from going into the drama and the panic i just pull right back in my being and i call it myself i call it slowing down time okay we're going to slow time down now so one of the things is i refuse for instance in the moment to look at the clock or to look at the weeks that we have left to do something i i had such a funny story i could share around that actually a little years ago in australia um i could tell the story later for this time um so i don't look at time i don't think about time i pull right back and i'm just very intentional. So there's this fierce intentionality that comes in.

And that intentionality is everything for me, actually. It's like, yes, this is what we're doing. This is what we achieve. This is what, you know, how we want it to be. And I'm actually actively holding that intentionality from this place of restraint. And the restraint is a discipline of how I use my time. And so I spoke about time boundaries in the sense of you know start the day at a particular

time once in the blue moon i will have to i can then push the on you know let them start but there's a base and we joke about it we call it pumpkin hour 5 p.m but we all know it's real alexandra needs to keep that boundary yeah yeah because I absolutely know my own nature I know my nervous system so well I know what I need the time I need before going to bed you know because sleep is everything for me and I have to practice restraint you know because right now in other areas because red school has somewhat taken over everything and because it's my creativity i don't mind you know this is my creative expression and that's what you do in old age you just serve what you're here to serve so that's cool i don't mind but i've compromised on certain things in my personal life for the time being because of this so that's

an act of restraint and i don't go no i don't i don't it's i restrain on all that shit except for five seconds that's that's usually if i've just not slept so brilliantly i'll have a little whinge i just cannot afford to go there. There goes the intentionality again. And it's I have to say, as I get older, it's much easier to do that. It's so much easier to have this kind of fierceness of focus. And I keep reminding myself, I chose this. I chose this. Step up, Pope. I'm hearing something in what you're saying that feels menopausal. Not that I know of that personally, but from what I've been learning from you and from Wise Power, this I know myself.

I know what I need and I will get it. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's the clarity that menopause brings. It just refines everything and just everything comes into sharp relief. It seems to have something to do with knowing one's own limits, which I think in earlier life stages, we're constantly trying to find what our limits are actually and go beyond our limits. Whereas as we mature,

and I'm starting to feel this now in my late forties, is I'm really having to recognize what my limits are and to operate within them rather than to overcome them. Yes. Yeah. Which is this dark art of restraint. And I I'd love to just join in that conversation about restraint because it's been such a profound skill for me too. And something I call on often because I feel so alive with my calling and so passionate and the vision I have and the vision that Alexandra and I share is big we really really want to change the world and um and i'm just a human being with like x amount of years on this planet and i'm a mother um of two beautiful daughters i have a lot of responsibility um there and a lot of responsibility there and a lot of headspace that goes to that and time that goes to

that so I'm limited actually in terms of the of what I can what I can do with this with regards this vision and that it has been a real edge for, the frustration that I come up against with what I want to see happen in the world and actually the limits of my humanness and all the hats that I wear and all the roles I have and responsibilities and so on. teaches us about boundaries because each inner season, you know, shows us our limits and keeps us contained within this whole, this rhythmic holding. But I've, I've really learned how accepting and even more than that, honoring my limits creates a certain kind of potency and power that is actually far more than my human self is capable of oh I just have to come in here and go yes yes yes yes it's that it's far more I mean this is what's so profound about menstruality is it really teaches us that it's not about doing more or being busier or pushing harder.

It's this trusting our limits, working with restraint to create this potency and draw on a power that is much, much deeper and much more connected with all of life. I find when I practice restraint, life rallies, life rallies, other people step up, support comes in. And suddenly there is a magic all of its own that starts to happen. It's like my calling can emerge, you know, beyond me. It's so magical. It's so exciting. And the mantra that I have, which I've been working with for years to help me remember this and I really believe it deeply now is minimum effort maximum impact do less and impact more well i am thinking all about the potency of restraint because when i am holding back it's like i'm recognizing i'm in partnership with something other yes and it's like an invitation

for that to come in if i'm always doing doing occupying the space nothing more can come towards me but when I pull back and just restrain myself you create space for something to come towards you but also restraint is demand it's like this discipline in me it just kind of i come back into myself and i root down and it feels like an restraint feels like an alchemical force it feels like it's alchemizing something yes i was thinking about how diamonds are forged under pressure yes today on my walk funnily enough that was me probably making sense of the pressure. We're at the right now.

I'm going, oh, yeah, diamonds are created. Yeah. That's the good news, Pope. But restraint feels like it has that, yeah, quality of, you know, alchemizing, creating the gold. Yeah. Whenever we say no to the world as we're approaching menstruation,

whenever we say no to the world and we walk away from what has to be done and our responsibilities, this is exactly what's happening. That's a sort of act of restraint and it opens the way for something other to come in. And that's what allows the power of menstruation to come through so that's where we really learn this and kind of feel that magic that alchemy at work

and and the incredible resource that comes rushing in when we let life you know let life lead so magic because i was thinking of the word magic too. It's a magic making tool. I'm loving what you're saying here. And the word apprenticeship keeps coming to me. The menstruality leadership program has always been referred to as an apprenticeship. And the skills that you're speaking about

and how cycle awareness works them month after month after month and then menopause works them in this great transformation, alchemical transformation that is menopause. What we're talking about is life teaching us, life guiding us it's not a university program with a certain amount of credits where we learn lots of ideas tick tick tick tick done stamp of approval it's an organic way of becoming the leaders that we are it's turning in towards ourselves turning towards the wisdom of life again and again and again and letting that teach us and work us which is why I know I'm so excited about this work because I've had enough of the world telling me I need to learn this this and this and give me the stamp of approval to be okay I know that there's wisdom within me there's wisdom within this world. And it's about me courting that wisdom. And I know it's what so many people love about your work, they tell me, and about the menstruality

leadership program is it's this apprenticeship to the wisdom that is living innately within ourselves, waiting to be known and understood yes Sophie an apprenticeship to menstruality apprenticeship to this wisdom in us and it's so beautiful the way you said that because we really feel how life gives us everything we need to be able to do what it is we're here to do. How deep that reciprocity is. And we really get to feel that through cycle awareness, that we are not called to do anything that we aren't made for and that life isn't going to support us in. And still there is much to learn on the way.

And that's the thing that I know so many people struggle with is the loneliness of leadership, the aloneness of being on this path. And there have been very, very few examples in the world of how to walk this with integrity and in service of the feminine, in service of life. There are so few examples. But also also there's so little out there about what the skills are, like the actual how, like how do you do it day by day? And Alexandra and I have been talking about this much more explicitly in the creation of the 2023 MLP. we really wanted to unpack how you walk this path of leadership, how you live this way of being that is in service of the feminine. And everything that we're going to be teaching on

the MLP really is the how. So it's both the apprenticeship to this inner holding to menstruality. And it's the guidebook. We're calling it the playbook. The playbook for how you live this leadership. And in the menstruality leadership lab that we're doing, what's going to be so fun about that is we're going to be having conversations with people who are going to share their stories so you can get to hear just as we're sharing today you know what this new kind of leadership looks like and how people face the challenges they're in but we're also going to be looking at the how we're going to be sharing some of these dark arts these skill sets. So there's a kind of workshoppy invitation to everybody to actually learn some of

the things that you can do that are going to help you in all these little micro negotiations you're making with yourself every day or, and, and these not so micro negotiations, you know, these bigger evolutionary leaps that you're going to be facing on your leadership um i think that's going to be really fun and a very lively way yeah and like you said we're going to be doing it together which is such a powerful antidote to the aloneness the lone wolf feeling that can happen we'll be in a group doing this together and then for those who choose to continue there is the next step which is the menstruality leadership program where there's a real wolf pack around you of people who are wanting to lead in so many different ways there's a great variety of paths that the students and the graduates take so yeah I can't wait it's it's happening on the 7th to the 10th of March. It's free. You can

register at redschool.net forward slash lab. Yes, so we warmly welcome you to join us and have a think about your people around you who would enjoy being in an immersive lab god my words today who would enjoy an immersion into this kind of leadership you know day one we'll be exploring visionary leadership day two rested leadership day three undefended leadership day four evolutionary leadership and let your friends know that this is happening and together let's explore a new way of of leading so in closing you two it's been a real honor for me to hear about your inner process and to hear about these dark arts and yeah is there anything you'd like to say in closing to invite people into this leadership lab with us? Oh, I just want to say, come and join us.

You know, let's have this feeling that we're on a new adventure together. You know, we're unfolding something. And yeah, come and join us. It's a new adventure that we're unfolding something and uh yeah come and join us it's a new adventure that we're unfolding thank you for listening today thank you for being part of this community it really is one of the great joys of my life being in this conversation with you to grow the reach of this powerful work around menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause thank you thank you for being here if you haven't already please subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review on apple podcasts and i'd like to take a

couple of minutes now to share a bit more about this menstruality leadership lab that we're going to be hosting later in March. It's free. It's open to all. It's from the 7th to the 10th of March. And you can find out all about it and register at redschool.net forward slash lab. On the first day, we're going to be exploring visionary leadership, looking at the menstruality leadership skill or dark art, as Alexandra and Sharni fondly call them, of pacing, which does so many things, but it helps us to tend to our sensitive nervous systems as we realise our big visions. I know there are so many people in this community with big visions and so many people in this community like me with very sensitive, highly sensitive bodies and minds and emotions and nervous systems so this skill can really support us to lead with our sensitivity.

On day two we're going to be looking at rested leadership and I get a sense of relief in my body when I say those words. We will work with the menstruality leadership skill, get a sense of relief in my body when I say those words. We will work with the menstruality leadership skill, the dark art of restedness to bring us home to the ground of our being as we navigate the constant stretch of life as a leader of life when we're working to birth something new. Apologies if you can hear my dog having a scratch in the background. Frodo always likes to get involved in the podcast. On day three we're going to be exploring undefended leadership, working with the menstruality leadership skill of holding the tension as we face the inevitable criticism that goes hand in hand with birthing something new into the world

and on the final day, day four, we'll be looking at evolutionary leadership, working with the menstruality leadership skill of interoception as we stay awake and open in the face of the emotional spectrum that leadership opens up within all of us. The event will culminate in a live gathering, a Q&A where Alexander and Sharni will share more about our menstruality leadership program. The final wave of applications for the program will open soon and if you join us for the leadership lab you'll actually receive a code to get a discount for the training if you choose to join us so you can find out more about the leadership lab and take your seat at redschool.net forward slash lab that's redschool.net forward slash lab I can tell

that Frodo really wants to go out for a walk so I'm going to go and turn to this lab now that I finished talking about that lab. Thank you so much for being with us today I really look forward to being with you next week and until then keep living life according to your own brilliant rhythm.