The Menstruality Podcast - 97. How to Claim and Express Yourself in Inner Summer (Alexandra & Sjanie)

Episode Date: July 20, 2023

What if there is a direct connection between your pleasure and your power? And what if harnessing the magic of inner summer of the menstrual cycle - the ovulation phase - is the key  to unleashing a deeply pleasurable, full expression of who you are in the world?We believe that both of these statements are true, but - as we explore in this podcast - a profound reclamation of the true power of inner summer is necessary, in a world which demands us to be in an endlessly productive summer-mode all of the time. As a result of all the societal projections created by hustle and beauty culture, the power of summer is much misunderstood, and many people struggle with it. Today we share ideas for how we can free ourselves from the narrow band of experience within which we’re told to operate, so that our unique magnetism and authenticity can be fully inhabited.We explore:The shadow-boxing that can take over inner summer when we live in a linear world which neglects our cyclicity.How being with the instinctual aliveness of our animal bodies helps us to unleash and express our power in the inner summer, as well as hold the charge of our Calling in the world. The direct connection between dropping deeply at menstruation and the full claiming of our inner summer selves. ---Join our *NEW* programme: Your Creative Power and receive £100 off before Sept 10th - www.redschool.net/creativity---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email [e-mail]---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.schoolSophie Jane Hardy: @sophie.jane.hardy - https://www.instagram.com/sophie.jane.hardy

Welcome to the Menstruality Podcast, where we share inspiring conversations about the power of menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause. This podcast is brought to you by Red School, where we're training the menstruality leaders of the future. I'm your host, Sophie Jane Hardy, and I'll be joined often by Red School's founders, Alexandra and Sharni, as well as an inspiring group of pioneers, activists, changemakers and creatives to explore how you can unashamedly claim the power of the menstrual cycle to activate your unique form of leadership for yourself, your community and the world. Hi there, welcome back to the Menstruality Podcast. Thank you for joining me today. It's summertime here in the UK and we're continuing our process today of diving deep into each of the inner seasons while the outer season is in full flow here in

the northern hemisphere. And what's really interesting is the power of inner summer, the ovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle, is really much misunderstood and many people find that they struggle with it. And in today's conversation we look at the impact of all of the societal projections created by hustle culture and beauty culture, and how we can each work towards a kind of profound reclamation of the true power of inner summer in a world which demands us to be in an endlessly productive summertime mode all of the time. So along the way we explore questions like, what if there's a direct connection between

your pleasure and your power? How can being with the instinctual aliveness of our animal bodies help us to unleash and express our full selves and how can dropping deeply at menstruation help the full claiming of our inner summer authenticity? Well welcome to the summertime you two. I'm just pouring myself an imaginary cocktail, just kicking back in the sun with the sun on my face, just ready to experience the pleasure and majesty of summer. I'm lounging in your image right now. So that's me gone for the podcast I mean summer does it's just when you say the word summer for me it just conjures images of holiday and good times and being outdoors and the glory of the sun and blue skies I mean just all that and actually my state, because I'm on day 21 is actually more aligned with

the kind of conversation that I know we're going to be having, which is really about how the power and potential of inner summer is disrupted or diluted or, um, what we'll get into it by the cultures that we live in so I'm I'm really with the like get out of the way of my inner summer people um I've got my yeah inner autumn fire but yeah I mean this day 21 it's my favorite part of the cycle and I feel so productive and so on it so clear so connected and plugged in and also a bit gritty oh i'm very happy to have your grit sophie yes yes yes so i am um in uh it's probably about four or five days away from the um new moon so what i was thinking this morning was is like the tendrils of inner quiet moving in

even as I'm very engaged with stuff that we're doing we have to do right now there's this oh yeah I can almost feel it now this is kind of in a quiet or stillness that's just present that i'm sort of resting in a bit hmm nice so i'm day 11 i feel i'm in the inner summer and the for me it has a quality of um I've got different metaphors flicking through my mind here the one is of a ball flying up in the sky but it's that moment of um sort of just before the hover and it almost slows down it's not like flying with the full momentum it's sort of gone to the point where it's yeah it's almost reached something and it's slowing down before the drop I also have a kind of rollercoaster image of that, like slow build up. Up on a rollercoaster. So there's this feeling of steady, stilling quality in me, but it's very outward focused. I feel very engaged and I'm really kind of holding all that's going on.

Yeah, I've got the vantage point of being up here. You know, it's that it has that quality of vantage point. I can really kind of see all the pieces. I've got a view of the whole theme park. I know where everything is. And in a way it has a command control type of energy about it um yeah and so it's a good place it's a very very good place you managed to bring in three metaphors there and I'm proud of myself I didn't mix them because this is this is what Alexander and I often do when

we're writing we like land up just moving between metaphors willy-nilly with no regard for holding the thread well there's just a delightful summertime fullness to your the way you describe your experience and I feel like to walk us into summer and some of the beauty and the possibility of it there's a quote from wild power that I'd like to read but before I do I guess it's important to name that in a summer is the ovulatory phase of the cycle so we're looking at around day 11 12 to around day 18 19 um might be slightly different for people yeah so that's the so yeah the ovulation would be sort of midpoint between that for you so if you have a 28 day cycle you know midpoint would be about day 14 15 so

yeah so this quote goes oh the summer a time of plenitude and ease. You have arrived. Your energy is at an all time high, giving you the capacity to have it all. There really are no limits now. You can be all things to all people. Superwoman lives and you get to be her for about 10 days. That is while it lasts you can be a powerhouse of productivity multitasking and fun and it's a time of languid ease and deep embodied presence to the world of sensual delights i'm just gonna have another sip of my cocktail right there yeah it is ah i can almost feel it now in me there's just something very i want to use the word there's a sort of fulfillment of something there's a a realization of something there's a sort of manifestation of something something

uh something rising up and then just opening blossoming out about summer and the thing i want to say actually is a sort of prelude to this is that when we're talking about the positives of any phase of the cycle we're talking about it within the context of the whole cycle of where each aspect of the cycle, we're able to fulfill each aspect of the cycle. So for us to have that experience, that fullness and ease of Samma, that sense that there is there is natural chi in the system and that there's a flow there rests on what has gone before on being able to have rested at menstruation and to feel resourced from that physically resourced from that but also also to feel, to find one's self again, as one does in menstruation, to feel that connection to oneself. into the inner spring, the pre-ovulatory phase, and how we navigate our way back into the world, husbanding our energy, you know, pacing our energy

and maintaining this connection to ourselves. So there's a certain amount of discipline involved in that, you know, kind of holding the tension, if you like. And then, you know, if one is really supported in that too and one is able to do that to some degree then there's the summer naturally unfolds it just it's like the brakes are off now you know you've been you've been managing those gear shifts very clearly and now you're in top gear and you're on an open road and yeah the way is clear and and this is just so important to to have this anchoring in oneself which is what that journey up to summer is helping us to keep that anchoring that connection so that at summer there's this just this

ah it's sort of orgasmic really it's quality there's actually a quality you know we talked about you know superwoman and you know we got real capacity for productivity but actually there's there's a kind of surrender that happens in the summer in the way. Well, it's different to the surrender of menstruation, but it's like, yeah, it's like a yielding and allowing yourself to be carried by something in the way that you do at menstruation. You give in and then you're carried by something mysterious. So, yes, there's this kind of arrival you know charlie was describing it just now with this ball weren't you charlie yeah this balloon rising rising rising and then ah you know you get to the peak and then yeah so there's that kind of quality

to it um and the other thing that's important to express here is that this this energy is is this lovely um natural kind of energy it's like a flow state you come into but it's flowing through who you are so of course we know we've described a kind of general picture there of of the summer in that quote from wild power but it's um it's going to show up sort of differently depending on our natures how it you know gets kind of how it how that energy gets manifested or expressed or fulfilled how we are with that but it's those qualities yes of productivity we've got capacity because and and our rational minds are sort of at their peak at this point so shani spoke about this you know like being in the control center you know you've got

the control center can you know the road ahead you know what you're doing and you've got the chi and you can direct the vehicle of you um but there's also this quality of pleasure for others it would be about just relishing you know being alive the pleasure of being alive yeah that the the um one of the things that really we're supported with in the inner summer, by the inner summer energy, is to be present. The inner summer really kind of helps us to land and be in ourselves and with ourselves and in the world and with the world, which is a very, very, I mean, all spiritual practices are kind of based around this.

And the inner Zama really helps us to come into this place and that means that we can much more easily feel this deep engagement with our bodies with our senses and of course presence also means being present to our hearts which is a very strong power in the inner summer this heart energy our capacity to allow and include and hold all of it it's a very I to say, kind of motherly energy of community and inclusivity and generosity, compassion. Very, very beautiful. And then at the same time, you've also got, as Alexander said, this incredible left brain intellect capacity that is at its strongest so we're coming into presence with body heart mind spirit like our authentic selves this is amazing lining up that can happen in ourselves i i've often felt it like all chakras lit up you know it's the that kind of harmonic energy when we really come into ourselves

and that's that ecstasy that alexandra was talking about that's that thing of really yeah lining up in all these ways in this very present state um and there's just one more other piece about that and I was feeling it this morning actually as I was stirring my cup of tea I felt this kind of presence in myself and the slowing down and I was really taking time squeezing the tea bag and felt the plump warmth of the herbs in the tea bag on my fingertips. And that's where that sensual delight comes from in the inner summer. It's like through that real mindfulness and presence that we've got a lot of access to. So there's so much sort of savoring that can happen here. Hence that holiday vibe that I feel, you know, it's like we all, all the beauty of life suddenly we can smell it.

We can see it. We can taste it. So good. So good. There's this quote from Amber in Wild Power, and she says, Ah, at last, it's like my whole spine has lengthened, and I'm remembering the true majesty of who I am, a woman, feeling a powerful need to be seen and met in my fullness. The word fullness feels yeah like a very important thread through everything that you've been sharing yeah and this claiming claiming of yourself in the world

in the world yeah this is me and feeling this i can hear real dignity in what she says, just feeling the dignity of herself and pride. It's like, yeah. Yeah, our needs really shift through the cycle. And certainly I've noticed for myself, and I'm kind of hearing that in Amber's quote, is that this is the place where we feel a need to be seen and recognized and acknowledged and it's um that is such a thirst I feel for all

of us that something something in our experience is incomplete until somebody else says, oh, wow, I see you. I love that about you. Or I'm so grateful for that. Or wow, you're amazing at that. Something is incomplete. The inner summer really brings a sense of completion where we're seen and we have ourselves reflected back and there's a sort of relishing

or celebrating of who we are. It isn't just coming from us. It's coming from others. My goodness, we need that so much to be appreciated actually yeah and recognized yeah it's part of what helps us flower it's beautiful to hear you speak about this and I'm also fully aware and I know that you two are massively too that there are probably many people listening who are thinking oh geez this is not what I'm experiencing in a summer or how do I get me some of that because that's not quite it doesn't you know

I'm not quite experiencing that yet and we had such a great riff before this conversation about what is going on with in a summer and how it's been co-opted by our cultures and it's thwarting not totally because we can claim it and we can find our way but it's thwarting some of this so can you can you walk us into that my inner autumn being is chomping at the bit to get to it yeah shani i'm going to let you respond answer that but i'd like to just say something before then which is i just really want to acknowledge just the very basic fact that we do keep acknowledging which is that um we live in this linear culture that is not valuing the cycle. So we're not supported at any level, really.

We may have partners who are on board with this, but sometimes we don't even have partners that are on board with this or even friends that are on board with this but being supported in um being able to take the time we need for instance you know I always think of menstruation how you bleed sets the tone for the whole cycle but just the very fact of not being trying to recover and restore something now. we can't do what we really feel we need to do to be able to fully relish and what I like to say, consummate each season, you know. Yeah. So I just want everyone to be very kind with themselves when we're talking about the bigness of this. Yeah, that we just live in a linear culture that's not valuing this and so

yeah just hold that in mind and actually when you say we live in a linear culture another way of saying that is we love we live in a culture that is permanently in the inner summer trying to be trying to be in the inner summer we live in an inner summer culture so the power of the inner summer is only powerful because it's temporary if we um if we try to stay in the inner summer energy longer than uh than it's um longer than it lasts. What happens is we go into burnout, we lose meaning, we feel disconnected, we overdraw on our emotional, spiritual, physical bank account. And there's a kind of, I want to say, raping and pillaging of resource, which is, of course, what we see in our world today. We see the shadow or the destruction that comes from trying to stay in one season and not valu a way we're all on some level,

sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, trying to stay in this energy all the time and resisting the other faces of who we are, the other ways of being, the other powers. And another way of saying that is that the person we are in the inner summer is the most socially acceptable. It's who our culture thinks we ought to be and should be all the time on some level we're all trying to live up to that oh god oh the pain can you feel the pain when you say it i just i i feel winded the pressure the pressure the claustrophobia you know it's not right and we're just oh yeah god yeah the

claustrophobia oh man it's so dehumanizing yes yeah it's so dehumanizing and so tragic really deeply tragic it's at such a great expense for us personally and for us collectively. And now I'm feeling stirred. I came to this conversation, I must tell you all with this very fierce agenda to really reclaim the true power of the inner summer. And as Alexandra said, the only way for us to do that is really to claim the whole cycle and to claim our cyclicity so that the inner summer once again has its rightful place as just a part of the tapestry of who we are that we get to like oh expand into all these different ways of being and all these different

faces of ourselves and all these different modes of operating I mean that's really what my agenda is here today so because actually the the true power of the inner summer has everything to do with each one of us really claiming and occupying who we are in the world. And that means us doing what we're here to do and giving our gifts. That means our power, our impact being realized. And the whole beautiful receiving of that, that happens. I feel, you know, I feel a certain teariness in me. And I think it's because our personal experience of this natural blossoming gets in a sense organized by the dominant cultural energy of doing and a kind of soullessness can take over it's like we get organized by that um

the dominant cultural energy around us and and so i'm actually just feeling a certain kind of grief that there's this soullessness that comes and easily happen, yeah. And, yeah, it's quite painful actually in the moment. It is. It is painful. I was going to make a joke after what Shani said and say, oh, I better take a sip of my cocktail now just to to ease through this and actually what I see the shadow that I see in that is one way that I cope with this

is I pour a glass of wine and I notice how and I think you know this is rife in our culture we we numb because we're feeling the pain of this we're feeling that this isn't the way it should be and there are so many different ways that i numb you know netflix wine whatever we've all got our our vices but i i just saw the car i just saw it so clearly in that moment of this isn't how it should be and that soul soulless feeling and the pain of it and then and and why it's so important to be reclaiming and restoring this inner college inner ecology inside us and that's the the answer here oh you know what's coming to me as we're all speaking here is that actually you know we talk about the summer having this robustness to it you know this energy and chi but there's

actually a real delicacy to it it's like an exposure it's like coming out and when you spoke about numbing you know if you're not connected to yourself, that kind of exposure in the world is too much. And, of course, getting into doing and stuff, that can be very addictive. And that itself is numbing after a period of time. It's fabulous and great, great you know generous as well but um if you're not if you're not connected to yourself all that doing doing that we do

is actually it's soulless and it's it's numbing and it's deadening something and so we in a sense keep perpetrating um the uh trauma that we are exacting in the world right now on our beloved mother earth yeah actually on each other how we treat each other yeah so if we're dulling and numbing ourselves we're losing the enormous as shani spoke about this mother energy embracing you actually when we were privately talking shani spoke about the embracing of the community of life this incredible inclusivity energy i mean that's just filled with love i mean that mother energy and the capacity of mothers is just knows no bounds it's in service of something and if we're but if we're not at ease with ourselves to some degree and of course you

know that's a learning process divine it's a growth you know that takes time um but you know a growing kind of ease with oneself. And if we don't have that, then that moment of opening out to the world and opening our hearts, that exposure, you know, we can't handle it. Yeah, because we're really coming into our hearts here, and unless we're willing to feel, we can't handle it. Yeah, because we're really coming into our hearts here. And unless we're willing to feel, we can't be present with our hearts. And what you said, Alexandra, and also what you've pointed to, Sophie, are very significant.

How we're being organized by a kind of productivity-obsessed culture and how we, in order to stay in the kind of incessant inner summer, we have to numb out because it's too painful to feel this loss of connection with ourselves, with our heart and the other piece is that our we're also being blatantly and not so blatantly organized by the need to look a certain way. Part of the way this incessant inner summer culture looks is that it has defined a very narrow view of what women should be, how we should look, how we should behave, and so on and so forth. And we're all sitting under this incredible weight of shame that we are not that. I was saying to Alexandra before, this is really strong. I was saying to Alexandra before we started our podcast that I heard somewhere some statistic.

And, you know, this doesn't need to be proven to me because I know it's true. 99.9% of women think there's something wrong with their body. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. So if we're all being organized by that, however do we step into this time of flowering to be visible and to show ourselves and to really let ourselves be seen. It's such a toxic thwarting of this inner summer power. And there are so many ways in my life that I have felt that as a hindrance to me really doing what I'm here to do or following the impulse that I have

to step out into the world. The number of times I have shut myself down because of some sort of shame around that. And I know I'm not, I know that 99.9% of women feel that way. There's a clear connection between this flowering, showing ourselves and unleashing the power of our inner summer and our creative expression in the world. And we're all about creativity at the moment at Red School because we've just opened the doors for our new Your Creative Power program which starts on September the 21st. Over the past four decades Alexandra and Sharni have had the honour of working with thousands of people as well as

deeply engaging with their own cycle processes to uncover this creative blueprint that lives within the menstrual cycle. They've used it to birth everything they've built at Red School, including two hugely celebrated Hay House books, 1.5 million dollars of revenue and dozens of courses which have guided over 14,000 students. You can take your seat on your creative power at redschool.net forward slash creativity. That's redschool.net forward slash creativity and you'll receive £100 off when you register before September the 10th. every time I try and find a photo to go on our website of a woman it's always the same woman that I see on all of the photo websites it's always the same and it's just never more obvious to me than those moments where I'm like nobody I just want to see photos of all of us so we can all feel included and belonging here and we're we have a fixation on

a certain body a certain face a certain way yeah it is so toxic thank you for naming it yeah and the little micro moments where we shut down all the way through the day because of it. So, yes, so shame is one of the big dances that happens in the inner summer. We do that either consciously or unconsciously. But we really confront our own shame in the inner summer. This pull to be seen and then all the ways that we want to hide um are very exposed to us in our inner summer which can make the seat i mean so you know so many people alexandra i mean just think of the stories we've heard the number of people who have come to red school thinking you know you know we

say we're all we all identify with a different season like what kind of women are you you know you're an inner winter woman or you're an inner summer woman and so many people have come to this work thinking i'm an inner summer woman only to really get into menstrual cycle awareness and be like i am so not an inner summer woman. I'm an inner autumn woman or whatever the case might be. I have just been thinking that is who I am because that's who I think I should be because that's who our culture wants us to be all the time. And then the amount of shame that people are having to negotiate. Yeah.

And I read this comment from Jimena. It came up on the cyclical business course. She said, beware the seduction of inner summer. I just had the insight that inner summer is the most socially acceptable phase of the cycle, being productive, being out there, doing things. And as a result, it can be very seductive I find myself wanting to extend it as much as I can before the clock strikes 12 and I become Cinderella again aka inner autumn this past week has helped me realize just how conditioned I am to the productivity culture and how much I tend to tie my worth with results. That says it all, doesn't it?

And what's interesting here is we're talking about really claiming oneself in the inner summer, one's authentic self. So if you are somebody who really doesn't fit into the kind of social norms and like who the hell does. But if you're somebody who really is operating in a much more marginalized sphere, for example, if you're somebody who identifies as non-binary or you're a person of color for example there is um so much more complexity

that you're having to deal with as you come into this phase to really claim your place in a world that kind of doesn't recognize or acknowledge you or doesn't value you for example yeah absolutely Shani thank you for naming that so so what can we do for people hearing this and feeling that yes fuck fuck what what can we do I'm just gonna say fuck a lot in this episode because fuck. Because you're day 21, you're allowed to. And this is shit, this situation. How can we change it? How can we reclaim it?

What can we each be doing 1% by 1% here? There's a thought I want to seed here. I want to think of each of us as agents of change. The thought is, what if I could be an agent of change for the world through me starting to dare to recover the power of my menstrual cycle or to and if you're already doing menstrual cycle awareness if you're already doing menstrual cycle awareness um to really see your practice of menstrual cycle awareness not just as uh this awakening journey to yourself but but as activism for the world, as you quietly starting to change how we do do things in society, what a wild thought to hold. And the reason I'm saying that is because I really want to dignify the importance of each person's individual daring to claim their menstrual cycle experience and it does take daring so really it's

as Shani was saying it is about work, this practice of menstrual cycle awareness. I love that you brought it in that way, Alexandra, because what we've been speaking about today is very strong. And the kind of cultural story is pervasive and feels insurmountable it feels like you know how do we how do we change that um and you're pointing us all back to ourselves and back to our personal practice of menstrual cycle awareness um because as we recover cyclicity for ourselves the inner summer is restored is is it it it then falls into grace I want to say is exalted the inner summer becomes exalted when we honor all the other phases of the cycle and And when we do that in ourselves, that then creates a change in the world.

I absolutely trust that. So yes, if you're listening to this conversation, you're probably already practicing menstrual cycle awareness. So you are already laying the foundation for a better experience of your inner summer or healing some of the wounds or the shadows or the challenges of your inner summer and there are a couple of other things we could say which really kind of point to how to care for the inner summer itself so once we've got the context of the whole cycle then there's the

you know how to meet the your personal experience of the inner summer in a way to yeah to be able to really feel the power of it so i'm thinking of well i you know we're having a little conversation about what sort of what season what season are you? I've always identified as being somebody who is both an inner summer woman and an inner autumn woman. I am both. Like I could never just identify with one because I feel like I'm such a combination

of these inner summer powers and these inner autumn powers. And I once did a sort of brain study that showed I'm equally left brain to to right brain which feels really true so in the summers that kind of left brainness and the inner autumn's really the right brain power coming to the fore and in a way I feel that my inner autumn is really fed and support my experience in the summer and vice versa. They are such good friends. They really need each other.

Like I can't see, you know, I really can't see how they exist without each other. The powers of the inner autumn, the capacity to slow down and to really come into my animal body has hugely helped me to experience the expression of my power and the kind of unleashed expression of my power, which comes through in the inner Sama. Now, Shani, can you just say that again? Can you just say that again? Because I feel like what you're saying is huge.

So this combination of slowing down, kind of dropping from my mind into my body and coming into the instinctual aliveness of my body into this, what I think of as a kind of animal power, animal body power. It's that that's really helped me to be able to hold the charge actually of my calling in the world and the clear uh expression of it you know i have this sort of image of um feet rooted deeply into the earth really standing heart open head held high and just saying it just saying it with a kind of effortless

natural matter of fact. Yeah. And that takes presence. It takes slowness. It takes being in connection with myself. And one thing I know about you from the times that we've been together physically, we're together all the time online, but when I've actually been with you physically is it feels like you put a lot of emphasis in your life on bringing pleasure to your physical body like it feels like you're doing it deliberately as a practice and what you're saying now really makes sense to me like we met up at a festival and the first thing we you said to me was right

we need to rub each other's feet that's the first thing and so we give each other this lovely gentle foot massage in the sun or when we met up for Louise's wedding you were just laid out in the window seat like a yeah just like a lioness just like yep and I could see you deliberately soaking in the pleasure of the moment or you were talking about you'd been to a spa recently this might be too much information and you like had honey and salt and you're rubbing it all over your body and it feels like this is a real intentional devotional practice which feels very connected to what you're you're talking about here with the animal body and how you connect to and express your power and hold the charge of it is that true it is and i

thank you for that reflection it's true i have discovered that if i stay focused on pleasure that is the source of my power wow this is such a key for us here for inner summer and it gives because often when I think oh I'd like to put some like body butter on my body I often just go I've got lots of other things to do but knowing that there's this direct connection between pleasure and power makes me think, oh, geez, I think I might prioritize that next time. It's, yeah, it's a really good key, this. Whatever pleasure looks like for each of us. Mm-hmm.

It really is a real key. And it's a real way of turning that whole, like, productivity-obsessed culture thing on its head because it's a real revolution to prioritize pleasure and my experience is that I am so much more productive when I'm rooted in pleasure I'm so much more effective I just I'm more joyful there's so much more I've got so much more energy capacity I'm coming from a resourced place yeah that's key it's being resourced yeah coming from a resourced place and pleasure is uh just such a powerful way of resourcing oneself but to think about what resources me and of course i just really want to emphasize menstruation the inner winter the care of the inner winter not to you know if you're struggling to manage that summer

energy i would really encourage you to actually really care for to put some more attention on giving yourself time and space to really drop at menstruation, to have a period of time of just complete surrender, of yielding, of giving up all agendas, and just feeling that deep drop, daring to have that drop, and to have a little taste of what that can open up the resourcing of that drop is beyond extraordinary it is beyond extraordinary and the more you can get it the more you're one filling your tank with physical chi but the more you're doing that the more you're cementing this connection with yourself this line with yourself because it demands something to claim

that time too and it's like saying i'm worth it so i mean the very act of claiming it is like strengthening something in you I swear I feel like a superhuman every time that I managed to get some of it I'm like wow I did it in this world in this situation and I've got a lot of privilege here too but you know with everything that's going on I claimed this and yeah I feel like uh yeah like like the tectonic plates have shifted whenever I managed to do it yeah that's so lovely so great hearing that the tectonic plates shift how radical just that claiming just more than before you know just extending your boundaries more and more before so really having that a little bit more do not set yourself up to go i've got to have the whole three four days do not even begin

to let that thought seep in just think how can i have a bit more and then really focus on this thing of dropping the dropping the agendas that the vital piece, to have the sense of drop. Because the rise comes from the drop. The step forward comes from the momentary sort of dropping in, and then the movement happens. And that's, you know, what we're caring for on a larger scale within our cycle the dropping in and then naturally the impulse to arise but it's rising from a place of connection

and it's this thing of connection to ourselves that we have to keep nurturing and which is what your cycle process is in cahoots with that's what your cycle is serving is is each phase of the cycle is another element in this aspect of connection with yourself and bringing you into a surer place with yourself a stronger embodiment of yourself each element of the cycle serves this and the other thing i want to emphasize here is think of it as a process that you know like an adventure too like each month like can i can i can i get a little bit more? Can I nail something? It's like 1% more, 1% more of allowing yourself something more. And to think of it as a long game, you know, because I'm really appreciating this now, the stage I'm at in my life. I just really can relish now the fruits of what I tended to.

And it's taken quite a long time, and I think it could have taken quicker if I'd known what I now know and what we're now teaching. But I really see it, for instance, in you, Shani, just how with your dedication to your cycle awareness and how you honor the creative challenges you encounter the challenges the tensions you encounter with your cycle and how you bring your attention to that in just small ways within a very intense life how you're being delivered to something more and more in yourself

it's very beautiful to see that and and for me it was a lot more unconscious that process because it hadn't been fully articulated then so i mean the message here that i'm really communicating is just taking these one percents one percents and really trusting it's happening it's happening not only is it happening in you but it's happening in the world because of you doing it and you're doing it and you're doing it that's so beautiful there was one word you said there what I that I want to pick up on because I realize this is another important piece within a summer Alexandra you spoke about how menstruation and just taking time out of menstruation in a way creates a feeling of

worthiness and the experience of menstruation creates a stronger feeling of worthiness. unconsciously be putting our foot on the brakes, not allowing ourselves to really be as big as we are, as seen as we want to be seen. And it's that practice of menstruation that builds the worthiness that really will support us to allow, allow, allow more of who we are to be seen and be in the world and allow more of ourselves to show up. So that feels very, very important and also helps with the shame piece, the shame piece. So just coming back to the shame again, one of the powers of the inner summer is actually communication or connection with others and this is one of the ways we can derail shame for ourselves is to talk about to really be honest with ourselves firstly and honest with each other about what we are shadowboxing in ourselves

um because when we we all know that when we speak about these things it um disintegrates a lot of the charge around them and when we are lovingly received in that sharing it helps us to um be a bit more real in the world so hopefully this conversation is doing a little bit of that for you all now but keep having a conversation with each other um keep talking about about this so that you're creating more space for yourself to be real in your life and in your friendships and in your family and in the world and in your work thank you okay so the vision that i had right at the beginning has changed quite dramatically through this conversation so there i was on my sun lounger with my cocktail and now where I am is in this vast field with thousands of us doing a great big

F you to the structures that be and giving each other foot rubs that's what I'm seeing now a pleasure revolution. Pleasurelution. A pleasure revolution. Thank you, you too. That's it for today. Wow, that conversation changed something in me and in my experience of Inner Summer. And I'm excited for my next inner summers especially to explore this piece around the animal body and pleasure and full

expression and before we wrap up today I want to reiterate our invitation for your creative power so this course is really designed to be a step-by-step map through the creative cycle which is this blueprint that Alexandra and Sharni have discovered and have been working with over the past decade that's born from the menstrual cycle and it's designed to support you with whatever you're creating in your life. However you're expressing that thing inside you that's pushing through you perhaps especially in inner summer, your calling, your purpose, whether it's starting a business or whether you're moving into a new career or having your first spin on a pottery wheel or doing the deep inner creative work of building a new identity or any kind of other

meaningful creative endeavor. Week by week you'll discover how to apply these tried and tested teachings to all of your creative projects for the rest of your life so that you can move ahead with confidence in birthing whatever it is that you're here to create in the world. So you can find out more about the course, explore the curriculum, find out about all the good bonuses that there are that you'll receive when you join the program at redschool.net forward slash creativity, redschool.net forward slash creativity and there's an early bird offer of 100 pounds off when you register before September the 10th. All right that's it for this week, I'll look forward to being with you again next week and until then keep living life according to your own brilliant rhythm.