The Menstruality Podcast - How to Harness Cycle Awareness for Sustainable Activism (Vianney Leigh)

Episode Date: November 11, 2021

Towards the middle of 2020, Cycle Alignment Guide, Vianney Leigh saw the extent of the burnout in her community, and decided to take action. In the weeks following the Black Lives Matter uprising, she used her own cycle awareness practice to create Period Power Activism, a coaching program that supports advocates and activists to align with the cycle and create sustainable change whilst making room for rest and sustained energy levels.We celebrate the many passionate activists in our community. Whether you’re working to dismantle systemic racism, make the Menstruality field more LGBTQ+ inclusive, decolonise yoga, end period poverty or fight for climate justice, we hope these groundbreaking teachings about cycles and activism support you to speak truth and stand for your values without burning out. We explore:How each inner season of the menstrual cycle can support sustainable activism, help you manage burnout, guilt and anxiety, cultivate more confidence and receive more cyclical wisdom and inner guidance. How Vianney harnessed her creative inspiration and natural capacity to connect with her audience in her inner summer, as well as the potent focus and instinctive impulses of inner autumn to craft her Period Power Activism course. The Black menstrual health crisis, Black maternal health crisis and Black mental health crisis and the extent of the social justice work that is needed.… but first Vianney began by generously and vulnerably sharing her story of working with a PMDD diagnosis and how her cycle initiated a profound spiritual awakening for her. ---Registration is open for our 2022 Menstruality Leadership Programme. You can check it out here: https://www.redschool.net/menstruality-leadership-programme-2022---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email [e-mail]---Social media:Red School: @red.school (https://www.instagram.com/red.school)Vianney Leigh: @statusflow.com (https://www.instagram.com/statusflow.co)

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 there, welcome back to the Menstruality Podcast. Today I'm really excited to share this conversation with a passionate and powerful leader in the menstruality world. Vianney Lee is the founder of Status Flow Collective and the host of the Periods and Power Moves podcast.

Her magic has been affirmed and celebrated by many sources including Ra Goddess and BBC London. She's a cycle alignment guide, a healer, an inspiring educator and she's changing the conversation about, well she's leading the conversation about the menstrual cycle and anxiety, cultivate more confidence in your truth speaking and receive more cyclical wisdom and inner guidance as you do it. We look at how Vianney harnessed her own creative inspiration and natural capacity to connect with her audience in her inner summer, as well as the potent focus and instinctive impulses of her inner autumn to craft this course, the Period Power Activism course. And we also touch on the Black menstrual health crisis, the Black maternal health crisis and the Black mental health crisis and just the extent of the

social justice work that's needed in these areas. But before we get into all of that, Vianney actually was really vulnerable and generous in the way she shared her own story of working with PMDD and how her cycle initiated a profound spiritual awakening for her. So here we go with this episode with Vianney Lee, The Menstrual Cycle and Sustainable Activism. Vianney Lee, the menstrual cycle and sustainable activism. So Vianney, thank you so much for saying yes to this and welcome to the Menstruality Podcast. How are you doing today? Hello Sophie, thank you so much for having me. I'm doing good today. It's a really sunny, bright blue day. So that definitely makes all of the difference for my mood and wellbeing. But yeah, I'm just, I'm excited to talk to you today. We always start with a cycle check-in and I know that you are

going to be a mama really, really soon. And as we were just talking about, I'm on the other side of this. I have a little one who's 10 months old.'ve only just got my cycle back but I so I'm intrigued to hear in this pregnancy how have you been um see I've already said that I'm going to be skipping over my words because I've got mom brain and you were like me too so that's gonna be part of this podcast um how are you connecting to your cyclical nature throughout the pregnancy I'm not going to lie the first when I first found out I was pregnant I immediately felt lost without my cycle it was a real kind of upheaval for me because I'm just so used to connecting with the seasons and knowing what day I'm on and yeah you know, really using it as a source of grounding and a roadmap in my life and business. So

I felt like I was experiencing all of the seasons all in one day during the first time I started pregnancy, which was a wild ride. Like I would wake up in the morning, feel really springy. And then like by 11 a.m., I would feel like I'm in my winter and then I'd be in my autumn and then I'd be in my summer in the night. It was just really wild. Once all of that leveled out, I really started to, you know, tap back into the wisdom that I knew that was available to me which was connecting with lunar energy um and really trying to connect with the the moon cycle which has been so helpful for me I would say the past three months so um I'm probably about three or four weeks into my fourth try my third trimester. So towards the end of my second trimester, and now into this third trimester, I've been really working with the moon cycle. And it's been, it's just been so amazing. It's been really nurturing actually and it's given me a lot of space and what I found is that it's actually quite strange how this has worked out and maybe it's not strange maybe it's just

like divine timing but I found out I was pregnant during the spring which is supposed to be your you know the spring stage of your pregnancy then I moved into my second trimester literally in the summer and then I've now moved into my third trimester in the autumn um so that feels very like I feel like I'm connected in some degree to that and that definitely feels in alignment and then obviously when the baby arrives it'll be the winter which is the fourth trimester so I think that's pretty cool how that's worked out well done for lining that one up the honey and life I don't know how I did how I did that but it's been that's been pretty cool I'm on day 26 I just got my cycle back a few months ago it's it's a cool place to be actually to have this conversation about activism you know the menstrual cycle and activism because I'm really in touch with

this part of my critic that kicks my ass and makes me call myself on my bullshit like it's and it's painful you know I'm like I'm so tired because I didn't get I haven't had much sleep lately you know I'm so tired I love this part of of me and of the inner autumn that's just like no this is you know right now in our world we need truth so come on let's do it so I'm I'm in a good place for this conversation. So I would love to get into a bit of your story. I was listening to your brilliant intro to your periods and power moves podcast. And in it, you shared that it was, I think only two or three years ago that you really had a difficult relationship with your period. And you shared a story about a time when you were running

this big, successful makeup business. you were running this big successful makeup business you were planning a big wedding with your now husband and you were really exhausted and you started to experience mood swings and actually this cycle of burning out for two weeks picking up the pieces for a week and then being a creative superhero entrepreneur for a week and it sort of led to eventually led to a breakdown and I'd love you to speak about you know that moment and what you learned about your cycle and I know it's a lot it's a lot to share about but I just love to hear you speak about your story yeah no absolutely it is it's funny because it was only a few years ago and I look back at that time now and I'm like, wow, the way that I just operated as a human being was just so different.

There was a lot of pressure, which there is, you know, there's still times I have to, you know, in a critic times I have to be like, don't put so much pressure on yourself. But I was really just on that go, go, go mentality. I didn't even believe or recognize the need for real rest you know real radical rest and which did lead to the burnout and lead to the breakdown and there were signs that I was maybe not listening to my body or maybe not connecting really with my intuition or my body would give me a nudge that something was out of alignment and I just kept going and I just think in those times you know if you don't listen well it's a Caribbean

thing to say actually if you don't if you don't see you will feel no if you don't hear you will feel um so yeah what I really felt that night of I call it like my night of the dark soul or um my breakdown to my breakthrough was just I just felt so helpless I you know um trigger warning for anyone that's listening but I did feel like I had suicidal ideation and it was just it was just relentless because I just kept on feeling like my life was going around in circles where I would take a couple of steps forward and then just be back where I started with everything like how I felt mentally spiritually emotionally how I felt in my relationship and I just got married as well so there was a lot going on um and then when I look back at my my cycle as I was growing up um there wasn't any connection to it it was just this thing

that happened to me I just you know I I talk about in an e-book that I wrote where I was on a contraceptive cocktail so I've tried all of the contraceptions apart from one because I have a history of breast cancer in my family but um there was a there was a time where I would have the injection and then I was on the pit the mini pill and then I had the implant and all of these things I was like oh no all of these things don't work for me um they were making me feel like not myself um when really in hindsight it was like oh they're not making me feel like myself because like they're altering myself um so yeah it was it's definitely been a whirlwind of a journey and then after the breakdown I really was like there has to

be some sort of connection as to why I feel like this every single month and then suddenly I had my period and everything feels okay so I just started researching like I think I really woke up then you know it was a spiritual awakening I woke up everything felt different looked different sounded different um and I started to research more about menstrual cycles and came across um a condition called premenstrual dysphoric disorder every single symptom that they were describing on this um article that I was reading was exactly what I'd been experiencing so it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders but at the same time I was reading was exactly what I'd been experiencing so it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders but at the same time I was scared I was scared like what does this mean for me who does this now mean I am can I get through this how does this change my life

how does this change my relationships um cut a long story short, I was diagnosed eventually with PMDD. And I was there'd been times in the past I'd said you know I'm feeling this type of way or I had these types of emotions and they would the doctors would just say you know you're just emotional you're just hormonal you're just this that the other there was no kind of questioning or like insight into what could be happening with my how my menstrual cycle could be affecting my mental health. So when I was diagnosed with PMDD and they said to me, these are the things that you can do. You can either manage your symptoms for the rest of your life. And I was like, well, what does that look like what does that mean what do I do um or you can go on antidepressants or you can you know have a hysterectomy some women are removing their wombs because they don't want to have a cycle and there was no kind of like

it's just so very blasé and I found the whole thing really strange especially because I had this new awakening of like wow the power of your cycle you know you can really change things for yourself and then I share this story because um I never used to and I now realize how important it is for me to talk about this but my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was about 11 years old and I remember her just witnessing her just completely change the way that she lived her life like in a holistic manner she changed the way that she ate she changed the way that her thoughts were she changed her lifestyle she changed the way that she moved she changed the way the relationships that she had. She had better boundaries.

Just so many things. I just witnessed such a huge shift. And she came out the other side, which I'm so grateful for. And I saw her advocate for herself. And I saw her, you know, even though she had a mastectomy, she's still here with us now and I just I think that really gave me a nudge like no you've seen someone else come out the other side of something even though they were told that this could happen to them you can do this for yourself so I just declined everything they offered me and I was just like right I'm just gonna go for my own little holistic journey and see what happens and that's exactly what I did and a lot happened there was a lot of trial and error a lot of

uh dark times but there was also so many incredible moments that I thought if I hadn't gone on this journey then I wouldn't even I wouldn't even be here like as I am today like being able to help other women other people who have struggled with problematic periods and create the work that I that I do now and live such a much more harmonious lifestyle it really does feel often like the menstrual cycle's got an agenda, like a hidden agenda to wake the world up. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

So, Vianney, when I was dreaming into this podcast months and months ago, I knew that you were one of the first people I wanted to interview because of the groundbreaking teachings you share about cycles and activism and we've got a lot of activists in this wider red school community you know there's people campaigning for LGBTQ rights in the menstrual cycle world lots of good work to dismantle systemic racism climate change action people working to decolonize yoga ending period poverty there's some really good work happening um and you've created this course which you know i listened to an interview with you recently and you were saying that it actually this course came up in response to the burnout you were seeing after last year's Black Lives Matter uprising.

So you created this coaching program, Period Power Activism. I'd love to hear about, actually, I heard you share about a kind of magic moment where you got a nudge to create this course. I'd love to hear about that. Oh, I literally just got goosebumps. You just reminded me of that journey. Yeah. I, you know, last year, 2020, was just... There's no words to actually describe the year,

but the words that drop in is just revolutionary. It's life-changing. It was a sacred pause it was necessary um it was painful it was uncertain and with all of those things that were going on you know during May of 2020 when the world witnessed George Floyd being murdered I could just something I mean I'm not the only one but I personally could just feel that there was going to be a lot of burnout and I could just see that there was going to be a call somewhat for us to take better care of ourselves and of each other. And it was interesting because when things like this happen,

I'm not the most responsive straight away. I'm not like oh right we have to do something like I kind of like look at the situation like from a bird's eye view and just kind of take a step back because I I sometimes need to get really silent to get really clear so there was some moments I was just just watching observing and then I was like I can't be on the internet it's just too much for me I can't watch the news it's just too much um and didn't realize that I was actually having my own racial trauma resurface just like many other people were um but then I remember one night I went to bed and I woke up in the middle of the night with this idea to create like a carousel post on Instagram of how we could use our cycle to sustainably help with our activism efforts and normally when I go to if I have like a dream in the night and I wait I'll like write it down or I'll say okay I'll remember that in the morning and sometimes it

goes and sometimes it stays I didn't write it down I just thought that's a really good idea let's see how I feel about it in the morning the next morning it was like so vivid so present in my mind so I was like right let me just go and create that so I just sat on my laptop and created this quick carousel post on canva um can you remember what where you're at in your cycle just really oh I was in my luteal phase yes I was in my luteal phase or on the cusp of, um, I was probably, I was probably around day 17 or day 18. Um, because what happened afterwards is I created the entire course during my, my, in autumn. Wow. And that literally took like a blink of an eye it was so

effortless so easy um so I just created the carousel post and I was like something was just like put this out today and normally sometimes I'm like oh this is not the day I post or you know time of the day I don't really post at this time of day and then my intuition was just like post this now I was like okay so I just posted it and it the reaction that it got was just insane I just wasn't expecting any type of I just I don't know it was just it blew my mind and this is it's been shared like hundreds of probably thousands of times now it hasn't it yeah well it was I can see here it was saved like 1200 times amazing I can't see how much it was shared now because of you know they've changed all the data protection stuff on Instagram but yeah it yeah so that was that was really insightful and I just again I just let my

intuition just kind of guide me um and then just started talking to my community online um asking you know what they're what what they needed support with what they're suffering with what how they feel like they could possibly help or what they feel guilty for at this time, just asking loads of questions. And then I was just like, right, I'm just going to create a mini masterclass, a mini course. And like I said, I did, I created it

and it took me less than a week and put it it out there and it yeah I taught the first module live and yeah just the reaction it's just I could just tell that this is what people needed people were so grateful to have a safe space to be able to immerse themselves in sustainable activism, using their cycle, but also a space to reflect on, you know, how they could be more open and willing to receive wisdom and guidance through, which I call, you know, the source of their highest truth, and that is the cycle. So I love that our cycles are

our source of our highest truth yeah absolutely absolutely I'm really excited to go into an exploration of each inner season and how we can do this cycle syncing for sustainable activism and before we do I want to look a bit more at the context of this and I was listening to one another one of your episodes with Nat Martin yes about being a black leader in the menstrual cycle space and it's such a powerful conversation I really recommend it again I'll link to it in the show notes and I learned a lot from it as well as from friends and other black educators and educators of color there's a huge black menstrual health crisis maternal health crisis mental health crisis one of the things you shared in your conversation with Nat is that black women are three times more likely to have fibroids and black mothers to be are facing more challenges than white mothers when it comes to birth and breastfeeding due to the

systemic racism medicine's got this history of believing that black women can tolerate more pain you know there's there's a lot of work to do. And you, you shared a great series of posts about how black women, there are mental health challenges to how black women have an increased exposure to trauma, but also less access to mental health services. Yes. There's inequality and access to menstrual products for black menstruators. But yeah, there's obviously a huge amount of work to do and this is forever work you know it's gonna go on and on and um that's why it needs to be sustainable and I think that's why your contribution here is so meaningful and I'd love to start with winter

actually to start within a winter and what this season means for our activism I think I heard you say if you if you're actually committed to activism then in winter you have to commit to rest it's so true it's a tough pill to swallow because I feel like when you put on the cloak of activism or the cape of activism and you feel like you've got so much work so there's so much you know the work is never done like you said it's a forever journey but you have to commit to resting and recovering during this time while you fight for social change or racial justice you just have to um it's super super important because you know when you're working with your cycle at this time this rest period as you know already Sophie it's like it it allows you to dream up into vision it allows you to get super super clear on

what your next steps are and if you're just on that treadmill or on that conveyor belt of what I'm going to do next where I'm conveyor belt of what I'm going to do next where I'm going to be next what I'm going to create next without actually asking yourself what feels aligned for you to work on next right in silence with that stillness um it is it's you're doing yourself an injustice and you need to be looking after yourself because you're important and the work that you're doing is important so yeah some some kind of tips for the inner winter of your social justice or racial justice efforts is yeah like I just said so commit to resting and recovering asking yourself what what felt aligned what felt in alignment um for what you're working on in the previous seasons that you just came out of

and then also um really like tapping into your inner wisdom and intuition to help you clear space and your emotions. So like during this time, you know, getting outside into fresh air, grounding, being in nature, tuning into your heart space and just getting back into your body really is super critical for you to continue to show up in a way that is going to be sustainable and helpful for you to create and execute more change yeah the way I often experience it in in a winter is you know that the rest of the cycle can be so filled with you know scrolling through social media and seeing the conversations that are happening seeing the just gonna swear just the bullshit in our world you know and it can feel so overwhelming I'm I'm a white woman here so I'm speaking as a white woman like I can't speak for what it is for black women and women of color and indigenous people to see the bullshit in this world and it's just so there's so much and so through the cycle it's like it can build up and I feel

like the inner winter is when I can sort of put the snow globe down let it all settle switch the phone off I mean it's a privilege to be able to do that really but to be able to switch the phone off it even if it's just for 10 minutes or like ideally an hour or like if it's possible a day and just stop stop the input and let you know I love the way you speak about intuition and clearly you're so tapped into your intuition just let something else speak instead of the world filling filling us up yeah I actually oh my goodness I actually read something last night um it was uh it was on the guardian and I don't know if you've heard of Michaela Cole. I haven't. She's an actress and a screenwriter.

And she wrote this incredible series that was on BBC iPlayer called May I Destroy You. And she recently just won an Emmy for best screenwriting. And she's a black woman. She's the first black woman to ever receive this Emmy. And they quoted her yesterday and this really spoke to me and I feel like this is such an inner winter such an inner winter mantra for all of us to remember and she says in a world that entices us to browse through the lives of others to help us feel to help better determine how we feel about ourselves and to in turn feel

the need to be constantly visible because visibility these days seems to somehow equate to success don't be afraid to disappear and see what comes to you in silence oh yes oh can you say that last bit again? Don't be afraid to. Yeah. Don't, do not be afraid to disappear and see what comes to you in silence. And that is medicine for the whole world, isn't it? If we can, every time we do that. Yeah. Yeah. Could, could we speak about the guilt that stops that from happening? Because I think that's the

main problem is like this sense of I can't stop I can't put it down because of a sense of guilt that we should be doing more yeah it's interesting it's um I can only speak from my own experience but you know times where I felt guilt for not for stopping is because that constant visibility thing on social media you constantly have to be showing that you are aware of what's going on the current affairs you are aware of what's going on with the human injustices and you're sharing and you're talking about it and you're and for me personally it goes back to the worthiness wound if you know that your worthiness isn't determined by your output then you can relax into the reality that is safe for you to rest and it's there were so many women on the peer power activism course when I run it live

and the guilt thing kept on coming up and it was you know the guilt of not knowing enough the guilt of not saying the wrong thing or not saying anything at all. And it's just like, tap into your heart space. Like, you know who you are at your core. You know that you are pure and you are full of love. And if that is your intention to continue to just put out, you know, love and to be open and willing to learn then nothing else matters right and it's been having that external validation or that external pressure of you must be doing this because everyone else is doing it's like no this is where we tune back into our cycle because our cycle I always say your cycle is the schedule your cycle is your timeline nobody else's when you're on your own timeline and nobody else's then nothing else

matters as to where you may be feeling moments of guilt because if you're in your inner winter you're in your inner winter you give yourself that space to rest if you're in your inner autumn you create that spaciousness for you to turn off the outside noise and that's safe for you to do so. Yeah. If you'd like to explore how your cycle can support your sustainable activism, Vianney's created a Period Power Activism Cheat Sheet

with 32 ideas to use your cycle superpowers for social justice. It's a brilliant resource and it's also a lead-in to her Period Power Activism course, which supports you to plan, create and execute your next social change project inside your business using the power of your monthly cycle. We're going to link to both in the show notes for today. Period Power Activism with Vianney Lee. In a spring, I know that this can be quite a tender place for a lot of people. Like there's the rising energy, which can be great to, great to ride off,

but there's also this tenderness and how do you sort of teach and what do you recommend for managing that i think what just dropped into me here was go slow and being aware that although your energy is rising you're still in that state of vulnerability um so it's more of instead of you know kind of like bursting back into the world and wanting to have your fingers in every single pie and do all the things it's more about getting curious like what are you curious to create? What are you curious to build? Who are you curious about, right? I feel like if we're talking about activism here, there's so many incredible change makers throughout history

that if you were to get curious about one of them and just share why that person piques your curiosity and you know what changes they've made and share a little bit about their lifestyle that has a ripple effect um I remember Rachel Rogers um she is an entrepreneur and she started talking about Madam C.J. Walker, who was the first first black millionaire. I think she was from like 1919 or something like that. Yeah, just by Rachel talking about Madam C.J. Walker. And I've learned that story years ago when I was in secondary school but it piqued my curiosity and I was like I'm really interested in learning more about

others and how they created change from history and how you know we can use their wisdom and their knowledge today what have they done that I can model right so I feel like your inner spring is a really good time for you to get curious about what you're being called to develop and how your medicine is going to be activating for others. Because just sharing a simple story of the first black millionaire who created hair care products and gave multiple thousands of jobs to other black women throughout history it's inspiring right and you take that inspiration and then you can research new ideas you can start thinking about who you want to collaborate with right and how you can initiate much I say I think I originally said on my um free cheat sheet on how to use your cycle seasons for activism, how you initiate connection. But what I really feel like that means to me now is how you can initiate real connection.

Like I am so much more about like that real sense of community and that real sense of connection. So yeah, those are some things for your inner spring. Go slow. See what piques your curiosity don't feel like you need to have your fingers in every single pie just yet it's a long game isn't it yeah which is why it's so good to have a cycle and just keep cycling around and every season check in and like okay I've moved this along a little bit beautiful that's what's so

exciting about having a cycle for me now but to some degree I'm really looking forward to having my cycle back because it's ongoing it's an opportunity to continue to create to build to tap into and you know sometimes people feel like they're not making any headway or they feel like they're not making any momentum. But when you have a cycle, trust me, those are seeds of intentions that you're planting and they're harvested every single month. Yeah. I just want to point to a couple of things you mentioned there, because Rachel Rogers, it's her brilliant book, isn't it? We Can Be Millionaires. We Should All Be Millionaires.

Yeah. Such a good book. So I'll link to that in the show notes and also have you seen the Netflix show about Madame CJ Walker yeah I watched it so good so good with Octavia Spencer brilliant actress yeah okay so that's spring I've got a few notes here from your cheat sheet, which we'll link to in the show notes as well, which is brilliant. It sort of lists out these, is it sort of 32 steps, I think? Yeah, 32 ideas on how to use your cycle, yeah, for activism. You share get an accountability partner and learn, unlearn and relearn together, which is a really powerful move. Yeah. And this is why, you know, the fear comes up. I understand that the fear comes up of I don't know enough or maybe I'll say the wrong thing or, you know, and this this is the whole point. You're starting from the beginning. You are starting to decondition, so to speak,

and unlearn things that you may have been taught, that you thought maybe was okay, or just the norm because of privilege. And this is a perfect opportunity during your inner spring to partner with somebody else and learn and relearn and unlearn because your inner spring is a really great time for you to start something new so let's move on to the inner summer which is such a powerful time for creativity and action and i'd love i'd love us to name some of the actions we can take because so many of the

women in our audience have their own businesses in the menstrual cycle space you know that they are the ones leading and changing the conversation about the menstrual cycle and menopause and there's so many opportunities for entrepreneurs to dismantle systemic racism and amplify black voices through our businesses so I'd love to map out some of the ways that we can do that yeah absolutely the inner summer as well with the high energy that it brings can make things sometimes seem uh chaotic or distracted or you know unfocused and that's why it's really important in your spring to get really clear about um what you're curious to being like to develop who you want to collaborate with so when you get into your inner summer you can make that happen um so some of the things

that I think is really great for you to do in the summer, if you do want to use your cycle for activism, sustainable activism anyway, is to start an IGTV series. like hosting an event or something is because obviously the world has changed very much and we are very much online on the internet some places still haven't opened up and we've got such an opportunity with this community with so many different menstrual cycle activisms activists across the globe the globe right so inviting someone into your space inviting a woman of color or a person of color into your space to show up and to share right to share their experience to share their lifestyle to really help get the other voices of marginalized communities out there and then just you know during this time as well it's really important to ask yourself how you can better support black clients and customers and I think

by doing so if you trust your cycle and this is why I always say that you're you know I think this is a red school quote um your cycle is your spiritual practice if you trust your cycle is your spiritual practice you'll know that spirit will bring you the right connections and the right collaborations into your realm so knowing that having that trust right having that trust in yourself in your life force in your intuition in your path you'll trust that the right people come into your space so it's not about worrying it's just the right person for for me to bring into my audience is about trusting and knowing that if you've had that inkling that curiosity is there for a reason and then some actual like physical things that you

can do depending on what cause you're, whether this is racial justice or social justice or climate change. Your inner summer is a really great time for you to start a fundraiser or to go on a march or to just really use your voice, nurture your audience and use your voice during that time because the inner summer's small I mean a short period isn't it it's three to five days if that for some people so make the most of it yeah thank you I want to point to a resource that's been that I've really appreciated there was a film that won an Oscar about periods it's about period poverty it's called period end of sentence oh yeah yeah incredible team of mostly women that created that documentary which really shows that the times are changing doesn't it the fact that a film about the menstrual cycle can be winning an oscar there's i think it's sort of a side project or

connected to that film there's the pad project and they're doing really amazing work to highlight the women of color in the menstrual cycle space so i've discovered so many people through them like crystal curtain and karen arthur from menopause whilst black and Amishade Bernie Scott who created the Black Girls Guide to Surviving Menopause so these brilliant women that I've discovered so that that could be a good resource for people to the PAD project that is incredible I've never heard of that before they featured you check them out I was like there's Vianney that's amazing yeah because you've just mentioned some women like Crystal I love Crystal she's been yeah she's been like a really steady force since I came into this space in my life anyway and I've you know directed many people to her

work and everything um but yeah no I need to check that out myself. Okay. And in autumn. Dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun, dun. I mean, such a powerful season for all kinds of activism. I mean, I think it can be a season where the rage about the injustices in our world can really really burn yeah I feel like since creating this course my

view around my inner autumn has completely changed when it comes to creation because initially my view to my inner autumn you know prior to entering this this uh community I hated my inner autumn it was the time of deep dread it was a time of despair it was a very dark time and then obviously you know working with my cycle and completely reframing that experience I started to love my inner autumn as a time for I don't have to be on all of the time I can actually turn the attention back towards myself and go inwards and but I did still struggle a little bit with how I would hear that it was a great time to do deep work until I created this course because this course was created like I said in the inner autumn and it was just

yeah it was really eye-opening for me so using your inner autumn as a guide to help you execute plan or create your social justice or racial justice projects is really a devotional time. And I feel like at every single stage of your cycle, it's really important for you to set an intention, whether it's your inner spring, your summer or your autumn autumn because it is a change in gear so you know if you have and it's not like you have to sit down at your desk and write an intention and light a candle and you'll do all of that but just just give yourself a moment to be like what's my intention for this season of my life now? Because you are moving into a new season of your life. And especially if you're working in this world of activism, it can be super helpful for you. It can be super clarifying for you as well.

So your inner autumn is a really good time for you like i said to get down to deep work detail oriented focused work um a time for you if you are wanting to create short-term or long-term change inside your business that helps uphold supporting the lives of women of color people of color then it's a really great time for you to really look back at everything you've written about your community guidelines, about your brand messaging, about your values, your mission, so that you can get more in touch with the alignment of being held accountable for diversity, inclusion and racial justice inside your business business I think a

lot of people did rewrite all of those things during that time but it's not a one and done job it's not something that you just write a statement on and that's it it's like when you update your Instagram bio you're not that same person that whole time you've learned new things you've got new skills you maybe added a new modality to your toolkit so it's really important every single in autumn to just review your brand's messaging and just make sure that is this in integrity is this in alignment with the the conscious creator or the conscious entrepreneur or conscious business owner that I am. So yeah, that's an action point. And like what you mentioned about the anger, the anger that you feel, the rage that you feel is sacred.

Over the past 18 months, I would say I've really found new ways to channel the anger and the rage that I sometimes feel into movement say more yeah oh my goodness because energy you know these emotions are energy and they just they just want to move so we must move our bodies so one of the things I put as an idea for you to use your cycle when you're in autumn for activism is to protest now i'm not saying use your anger and go out and protest in a like a militant way but move your body like shout scream if you need to like all of these things are sacred it's just an expression and again if your intention is clear and it's aligned with God's path, God's purpose for your life, then you're protected, right? You're guided. So I think that's a really great point to share. and then just reflecting all the things that you've possibly picked up or learned or seen

from your winter right through to your inner autumn now is a really great time for you to just ask yourself what thought or belief do you think that you need to let go of because it's a constant evolution of yourself and it's a this journey is like a constant evolution of your spirit as well so it's important that you are like cleansing your energetic field of things that are no longer serving you so that you can be that change maker that is making headway with the work that you're doing in a way that your energy is clear and your energy is purposeful this feels like it's um connecting into my cycle checking at the beginning when i was talking about the truth teller which i think we can often be quite afraid of in our inner autumn or other people can be afraid of it because it might come out to them but I think this is where we can channel the the truth teller inwards and look at okay where are my unconscious biases you know what do I not understand about the different members of the LGBTQ plus community how can I learn like where

is my white fragility showing up right now and having those painful truth-telling moments which comes back around to your accountability partner idea you know having at red school in pretty much all our programs we have listening partnerships and they've been the most one of the most powerful aspects of all the programs I've done because I get to debrief and just be heard by somebody and I think having a having a listening partner in this work is so valuable for that just to have a safe space to to look at the look at the stuff that's kind of backing up in us that needs to be cleared out so that we can show up as the people that that we are and that we want to be yeah that's that's such a good point, actually, Sophie. Yeah, the listening partnership has been so, so, so helpful. Because sometimes we don't need a back and forth conversation.

Sometimes we just need to speak and then we get the clarity from our own words as to, wow, I didn't know that I felt like that. Or I didn't know this would be a topic for triggering me or yeah so I loved how you called this autumn time the devotional time I haven't heard that before but it feels that way it feels that that gives an extra level of dignifying and honoring to it it's the devotional time that just came to me just now i see you are on fire you talk about doing the deep detail-oriented focused work in in autumn and i wanted to point to a resource in the period power activism course which i really loved what which was a spreadsheet where you walked through how you

were organizing some social justice work that you were doing and the inner like spreadsheet geek in me was just so excited to see that could you speak more about that that resource yeah absolutely oh I'm so glad that you like that as well. I geeked out on it. I love a spreadsheet. And sometimes I feel like everyone's going to love a spreadsheet. But so, yeah, it's just using your cycle to map out and plan out the tasks that you want to really focus on what I find really important about when you work with your menstrual cycle is that you have these guidelines right you have like you know like when you're on bumper cars and you you bump into someone or you bump around the edges you know that you're still self-contained and it's like your cycle allows you to

your cycle allows you to be contained but it also allows you to be a bigger container does that make sense yes and I feel like when you use the resources that I have inside of the peer power activism course allows you to get really really clear on what your bandwidth is right where your bumpers kind of start and stop and then you can keep going back to it each each time to kind of review okay well maybe I didn't I wasn't able to get that done then but it doesn't mean I can't get it done in the next season or I can't get it done in the next cycle. I feel like visibility when you're working is super helpful with a cycle. So like actually knowing what day you're going to be transitioning into a new season is going to be really helpful so that you don't overload yourself or you don't overwhelm yourself so yeah for me I just found that really helpful

to kind of organize my thoughts and what steps I was going to take in order to make my social justice projects come to life and it's really really helpful to hear that you found that and valuable as well yeah and the project you mention in it is bringing cycle awareness into schools I think yes such good work that's a big project like it's not you know when you when you first have an idea or something it's you think okay well I just contact this person that person and then you know but it's an ongoing devotion see there's that word again ongoing devotion to continue to allow yourself to know this is an ongoing journey and each seed that you're planting at every single phase of your cycle is is going to harvest so I'm going to link to the period power activism course in the

show notes can you share a brief outline of what happens in the course for the people that want to take it yeah absolutely okay where do I start so yeah period power activism is your cycle awareness meeting activism. And it's a really great mini course for you to take to help you plan, create and execute your social change projects or racial justice projects inside your life and your businesses using the power of your monthly cycle. So I really feel like when people want to do this work they are worried about burnout guilt and anxiety but this really gives you the confidence to discover how you can harness your monthly cycle to create more change so there's three modules inside the course so inside of the course you are going to get an introduction to cycle syncing activism. And this is really where you are able to stop guessing what to do in each phase of your cycle. So we've touched on that a little bit already inside this podcast episode, but get really clear on how to maximize your hormonal power to create these sustainable changes. So and then in module two, we go through activating your inner seasons

for social change initiatives so this is I think this is what maybe you were talking about Sophie with the spreadsheet but um where you stop stop feeling guilty trying to fit everything in and trying to figure out how to do all the things and be all of the different wearing hats and start activating and taking advantage of your inner cycle seasons that tells you when to do all the things so you can avoid the burnout and overwhelm so inside this module you get a cycle superpower strategy video and also a cycle at glance week by week guide with a template to help you stay cycle centric in all areas of your life and your business with, well through the lens of racial justice and social change. And then the final module is how to plan and build your social change projects with your cycle. behind the scenes um plan with me videos so you can see what I do to exactly plan how I'm going to create more change inside of my business or outside social change or racial justice projects

and then you also get lots of templates checklists and evaluation forms as well so you can really have the activism as like a pillar within your business so yeah and then there's some sneaky little bonuses inside that course as well oh I haven't seen those yet I need to check those out you need to check those out I'll tell you what it is it's um stress and the effects on your monthly cycle so it's a masterclass that I've put together it's like a 60 minute masterclass brilliant so how you can avoid that or move through that or with that with your cycle it's such a profound resource for you it's amazing and it's as far as I can see that only there isn't another course like this like you are the only person who's put these two things together in this powerful way in this course so I really think anyone who's interested in sharing about

cycle awareness needs to do this course and tell everyone they know to do this course yay thank you thank you is there anything you'd like to share in closing today? I just would like to say thank you for allowing me to for giving me the platform to have this conversation and get peer power activism more into other people's hands so they can help themselves first right I really do feel like you have to pour from be able to pour from your own cup before you're able to help others and I really feel like this you have to pour from be able to pour from your own cup before you're able to help others and I really feel like this is you know that devotional time that you need in order to be able to step up and see yourself as a change maker um so yeah thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about I thank you for reminding me how powerful the course is and um yeah I'm just super grateful that I've had this opportunity yeah

thanks for yawning um I'm sure I feel like we're going to continue this conversation so I look forward to that and in the meantime just the best I'm just sending you all the best wishes in the world for your the continuation of your pregnancy and for your birth and for your fourth trimester with your little one. Thank you so much, Sophie. Thank you. I really appreciate that. Thank you so much for being with us today and listening to the Menstruality Podcast from Red School.

Please subscribe and follow wherever you listen to podcasts and it'll really help us to reach more people if you could leave us a review. And if you'd like to explore how to activate your unique form of leadership through menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause, you can visit menstrualityleadership.com. All right, see you next week and until then, keep living life by your own brilliant rhythm.