The Menstruality Podcast - How Your Cycle Unleashes Your Creative Expression (Lucy Peach)

Episode Date: May 19, 2022

Are you currently working on a creative project that you’d love to infuse with your cyclical wisdom? Whether you’re writing a book, growing a garden, launching a business or making art, your cycle can be a profound anchor and resource.In today’s episode, we talk with someone who knows a thing or two about the menstrual cycles and creativity. Lucy Peach is a period preacher, author, and folksinger. She’s a graduate of the Red School Menstruality Leadership Programme and she has written a book, created songs, produced an award-winning theatre show, delivered educational programmes for teens and even created a TED talk, all about the menstrual cycle. We explore how she has worked with her cycle to cultivate this epic creativity and shift the period narrative in our culture from one of shame to one of pride, including:Lucy’s take on the four phases or inner seasons of the cycle: Dream, Do, Give, Take, and how they each support our creative process. How Lucy’s cycle guides her creative collaboration with her husband, and how he experiences his own cyclical creativity, as well as how non-cycling men react to Lucy’s theatre show. How to work with dreams to access your creative power, especially in the void just before you bleed as a powerful creative resource - Lucy and Sophie both share what a recurring nightmare has taught them about their power and creativity.---Have you listened to our free webinar replay about how to channel your cycle's creative powers as an entrepreneur? You can watch How Your Menstrual Cycle Can Help You Create A Thriving Business here : https://www.yourcyclicalbusiness.com---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.schoolLucy Peach: @lucyspeaches - https://www.instagram.com/lucyspeaches/Sophie 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. Are you currently working on a creative project that you'd love to infuse with your cyclical wisdom? Maybe you're writing a book, you might be growing a garden, you might be launching a business or making art or any other form of creative expression, your cycle can be

a massive resource and a really profound anchor for you in your creative process. And in today's episode, we talk with someone who knows a thing or two about the menstrual cycles and creativity. Lucy Peach is a period preacher. She's an author. She's a folk singer, she's a graduate of our menstruality leadership program. She's written a book, written songs, created an award-winning theatre show, created educational programs for teens and even created a brilliant TED talk all about the power of the menstrual cycle and today we explore how she's worked with her cycle to fuel this epic creativity and to shift the period narrative in our culture from one of shame to one of pride. So we explore Lucy's take on the four phases or inner seasons of the cycle, dream, do, give and take. We look at how Lucy's cycle has

guided her creative collaboration with her husband and how she works with her dreams and we actually go into a shared nightmare we've both had and what this nightmare has taught us about our power and our creativity. So hi Lucy Peach, thank you for joining the Menstruality Podcast today. I wrote you a message earlier this morning telling you that I'd had so much fun playing around in your online world and watching your TED Talk and your music videos and looking at your website and watching your Instagram reels which are really funny and I thanked you for making me laugh more than I have in ages. Who said periods can't be funny hey?

Yeah you are definitely changing the narrative on that one. How are you feeling today? You must be maybe in your bleed right now. Well done um yes thank you for having me as well and I am I'm day three so that's winter or I call it the dream phase and um I'm definitely still still in it but um it's uh we've we've our whole house has been in a bit of a dream phase because we're isolating my son has covered he's locked in the basement and um it's uh it's all been taken down a notch so it's been really nice to um serendipitously just go slow and rest with it oh that sounds so good i mean so good in the way that self-isolation can be like that's not the easiest silver lining yeah I don't mean to gloat that my son is in the back it's actually not as bad as it sounds but um

yeah it's it's the silver lining isn't it so I'm just ahead of you I'm on day six so we're both we'll both be dreamy today that's's nice. Nice. I want to talk all about creativity today and creativity and cycles. And I want to start with your theatre show, My Greatest Period Ever, which you created in 2017. You toured Australia and the UK. And then you won the Brighton and the Sydney and one more award, which is amazing. What was the other award? The other award's called the Martin Sims Award, which is, yeah, a guy who bequeathed a bunch of money to the best fringe artist.

So in Perth, which is the third biggest fringe in the world well depending on who you're asking um there's about 700 shows so to win that was a huge honor and it meant that we could then go and tour around and develop the show and take it to Brighton and that was yeah really really such a wonderful journey. So can you tell us a bit about the show and what inspired it? Yeah, well, obviously what inspired it, as you know, is my menstrual cycle. And the show essentially is me giving a tour through the emotional landscape of the cycle using stories and using songs and

science um and really stepping through the four phases of the cycle um and so I call that um dream do give and take um am I allowed to swear just a tiny bit? Yes, please do. Okay, great. So the other name for the phases is Zero Fucks, Fucks for Days, Fuck Yes and Fuck This. And so the show is underpinned by that kind of arc and I sing and tell stories and then my husband who is a

creative director he narrates the whole show um drawing live animation um he doesn't narrate so he he does live animation I'm getting confused yeah live animation so that's kind of the the format of the show and essentially um it was inspired because yeah I've been sort of I don't know the period person for um I don't know probably since I was about 27 and you know back then it was just not very cool to be banging on about your period all the time um I have one really distinct memory of this guy who actually really like saying to me um you know he you really go on about your period a lot you know um he's a musician I'm a musician and I was like yeah but Dave it's a big part of my life and what would you rather I talked about you know my shit and he sort of thought about it and he

took that question quite seriously and he was like um yeah yeah I think I probably would be more comfortable with that and wow that was quite inspiring to me because I thought well I mean yes it's another bodily function and if you want to go make a fringe show about your digestive system then just go right ahead but yeah I guess it was just an indication of where we were at that was back in 2016 and then um yeah I knew a guy who was who who was putting on a lot of fringe shows and producing them and we were making a music video at the time um and I was getting ready for a particular scene and um I was trying to decide which lipstick to wear we were up in this little fishing shack um in the middle of yeah up north and uh I said uh wonder which lipstick I should wear and I was like fuck

it I'm in my I'm in my post-ovulatory give phase I'm gonna wear hot pink and he was like what what is this what are you talking about and so I kind of gave him a synopsis. And he was like, what is this? What are you talking about? And so I kind of gave him a synopsis of what it was like to have a cycle, you know, above and beyond just the mechanics of what's going on in your body. And he was just like, he'd never heard it. And he was probably, I don't know, early 40s. And he was like, this is amazing. You need to tell everyone you

need to write a show about this and I was like obviously in the poster military fuck yes give Summer Faye so I was like yes I should and then I was like actually hang on let me just think about that because I was sort of doing a bunch of other things at the time and my husband was like are you sure you're meant to be writing an album and I was like no I really want to do it and so yeah it kind of started out as a bit of a dare and and then it just kind of exploded which is an unfortunate choice of words to put into a period show but it really did take off and it's still taking off and um it's just yeah it's it's I can't imagine not doing it now it's something that I'm really passionate about and I'm just finding to be so rewarding and I love it and so it's obviously won these awards

so it's landing well it's taken off and it's landing well but what's the response like from audiences how do people respond to it well the first time you know I was just hoping that my friends and family and the small fan base that I already have in Perth would come along and then I wouldn't embarrass myself and have to pay a bill back to the fringe association. And I, yeah, we sort of, it was all word of mouth. And we sold out every show bar about five seats on the first and second night and I noticed how even in my own tone I was a little bit sort of, ooh, hope you all know what you're in for and if you think you might have come to the wrong show,

you can leave now and sort of a little bit of disclaimers and maybe even a little bit of, you know pre-apologetic kind of vibe um but then I was just so blown away at how readily everybody there um engaged with it and was so with me and didn't want to leave and so you know when you do a fringe show you have to bump in and out really quickly and there's just no loitering because there's no time and there was a comedian who was on after me who would get the shits every night because the people wouldn't leave and they were just clogging up the foyer and I could there were strangers just openly discussing their cycle and their emotions and their bodies with each other and yeah I just was really um blown away by that and it I kind of thought well I guess

this isn't just about me and my period this is something that everybody's kind of um really really ready and willing to have a conversation about and willing to have a conversation about and wanting to have a conversation about. And that was six years ago and it's only increased really. Yeah, I mean, I guess it's an indictment on how little people have felt comfortable to have those conversations and for how long the lid has been so firmly screwed on and so now it's like I mean yeah you could just talk for 2000 years about it And we will. And we will. And you don't just talk about it, you sing about it, you perform about it, you write about it,

you drape cloths from trees and do handstands about it. express yourself in service to this menstrual power and the menstruality movement is so fresh and exciting and fascinating like I was watching your music video for your blood is amazing so there's a video of you walking on your hands in a dress with a huge red train and then you open your legs up and there are these four colors of cloth coming down from the trees that represent the four phases or seasons of the cycle coming out from between your legs and it's just so funny and brilliant and I'd love to hear where that where does this unleashedness this creativity come from in you what's going on there well the first thing I want to say is um that woman doing the handstand is not me although I do like to express myself in a myriad of ways walking on my hands for an extended period of time is not one I can yet lay claim to. No, I hired a circus performer from Yuck Circus and she was fantastic.

So, yeah, that was great to have some help there in promoting period power. But in terms of the creativity, I mean, I guess I've always been a pretty expressive person and I really love sharing and I love creating and learning new ways to communicate things. But it would be remiss of me to not mention my husband because he is a creative director and from pretty well the beginning of the show he's been a part of how I make a lot of what I do.

And, yeah, it's been a real collaboration and a labour of love. And, you know, I will often sort of go to him with an idea of something that I want to do or something that I want to communicate and he'll say yeah cool and you could do this or you could do that or um and so yeah the video clip that you mentioned um was that was his idea to do that and it was his idea to really create an icon you know to create a really strong powerful image that people could look at and hook into and relate to in a really physical way and so um it's really yeah it's lovely to have have that sort of shared idea and um way to kind of play with each other but around something that means so much to me and to know that he will treat it with

reverence and um all of the care and um attention that I want for it. Wow. I would love to interview both, interview both of you on the podcast one day about this and about how you, how you create together. That's so exciting that you, that you have such a creative relationship and how does that work as you go through your cycle? Does that change the flavor of how you, how collaborate yeah totally and I mean we're not sort of joined at the hip collaborating all of the time we kind of um it's yeah we kind of dip in and out probably um in accordance with my cycle as well and I guess it's like any relationship that's impacted by a cycle in that, yeah, it ebbs and flows and there is times when I want his help on something

that I want to do myself that I don't want him to be looking over my shoulder. And there are other times when it's really fun to get in the sandpit together and, yeah yeah just be really free and playful together so um and it obviously like any relationship it's really important to be able to communicate what you need when you need how you need it and um to not take things personally and to just know that there's yeah there's a rhythm and you've got to have boundaries haven't you I had a long relationship that was a filmmaking duo relationship and we realized pretty quickly that we had to have archetypes for our filmmaking selves

because otherwise they would just creep into everything. So we had our filmmaker selves and then we'd put those, take those off at the end of the day and then go and have dinner and have pizza and not talk about what we were working on. Although invariably we often did, but it was, well, that's the thing because you do, but then there's those times where, you know, I'm day 11 and I've got ideas coming out of every orifice and I wake up at five o'clock in the morning and I'm like Richard are you awake?

And he's like oh yeah. Lots of people ask this have asked us about the podcast if we can do an episode about this how do you notice him his creative cycles like is there a like obviously he's not endlessly always creative do you notice a rhythm and flow to his creativity um do I notice a rhythm and flow yeah I mean I guess really the thing that impacts it the most I mean he's a really creative person and that's his job is to you know come up with ideas and bring them to life in really creative, imaginative ways. But I can see that he gets pulled away from that sort of spark if he's, you know, doing days and days of Zoom meetings and admin and in addition to that not doing things to take care of himself, you know, being in nature going surfing

seeing his family all of the self-care things that i think typically um men are maybe just not as um conditioned to see as valuable for themselves um you know and it's that sort of archetype of masculinity isn't it that you're just pushing forward and constantly being productive and you're strong and reliable and you never falter and, you know, you don't have an emotion that's out of step with those values. And that's something that I've really observed in the way men respond to the show is they often, you know know non-cycling men will say things like I feel all of those things and I feel like I have that cycle and it might not be over a month but I

recognize all of those elements of you know being really deep and dreamy with myself and needing to slow down and be reflective or being really driven and assertive and wanting to do and be productive or yeah wanting to share and give and sort of enjoy the abundance and then yeah being in the take phase or the autumn and needing to turn my back on the world and just focus on myself and I think that's the cool thing is that if we can get men on board with this conversation, then they get to enjoy the benefits of paying more attention to how they feel and what they need and being in the rhythm of being in tune with your body. It's so true. This is for everyone, isn't it?

There's so much wisdom and power in this work for everyone. So I want to come back to your your blood is amazing video so you were filming the video and then covid happened and the pandemic happened and like so many people you had to find a way to pivot and it was cool I really like the way you did it in the video because instead of going ahead and filming with the original plan you made a different kind of video and you show some of the storyboards that you were going to use which looked amazing and it'd be great to see them one one day um as a video but you took the opportunity to teach about the four phases of the cycle as you see them dream

do give take and what was your description with the fucks can you say that again oh yes that is uh looking at your fuck budget through the lens of your menstrual cycle so you begin with nothing fuck all so that is the zero fucks phase and then as the estrogen rises and peaks and you get that shot of testosterone um you're in the fucks for days phase and then after ovulation you're in the fuck yes phase which is when you someone's just shaking ice out there when you want to say fuck yes to everything and then as you you know go down the hill and you're letting go of the lovely hormones progesterone and estrogen you are in the fuck this slash that slash you slash everything phase and then you start all over again

can we talk about these phases through the lens of creativity i'd love to hear about how your creative process works in each different phase I know it must vary from cycle to cycle and depending on what's happening in your world but if we can start with the dream phase what what 10 what what creative patterns happen for you in in your winter yeah so making time and space for things because yeah as you know if you kind of don't have any time to be with yourself especially when you're bleeding um then you can't really enjoy the gifts as much and so what I've noticed over the years is that if I get enough sleep and really, um, take care of myself, then that's when I'm, I'm really, um, more likely to be able to sort of tap into some, I don't know, bigger calling or some sort of, I don't know, some other direction, you know, and I mean, maybe I could do that all month long, but I guess that's

the time when I really heed it. And so not this cycle, but last cycle, yeah, I had all these weird dreams. Actually, I mean, this is probably too long to explore in this podcast, but I had all these weird dreams actually I mean this is probably too long to explore in this podcast but I had I had quite a scary dream I had a nightmare that I haven't had um it's a reoccurring dream of sort of being chased and I haven't had it for a really long time since I've since my early 20s um and I had this dream again and I woke up calling for help and it was just left me with that horrible feeling that you just can't quite write yourself and it's the middle of the night and and then I started thinking about this dream and what it meant and really thinking about the work that I'm doing

and the direction that I want to go in. And then I just got all of these ideas for how I want to evolve the show that I've been doing and where I want to take it and how I want to explore that process, you know, getting from here to the next part. And then I was so inspired and you know I got my diary out and I just wrote for about an hour and then I went back to sleep and I slept in but in the end I was so grateful that I'd been woken up by this nightmare because

then I wouldn't have um I you know really had all of these um realizations about the nightmare that I'd never I'd sort of considered it from a different angle um and and then it took me yeah to this whole other little germination of um of another wormhole to explore and I just was like oh and then I got my period like that morning and um I was just like oh there you are there you are yeah oh this is so fascinating I wonder how many people have had that dream in the void because I really relate. I know that in my 20s, I had about three or four dreams where I was being chased by a certain scary figure that always looked the same. And I would wake up in sweats and I would I would scream out. So, you know, same. I wonder if this is a void pattern here by void I mean for people listening who don't know that term the the moment

before the bleed comes which can be like an hour or a day or two days and can be a really vulnerable place for people oh that's really fascinating would you mind sharing the insights that you had about the nightmare yeah so I haven't I haven't really talked about it since I have to make sure I remember everything but basically yeah the dream was that I I was being chased and I you know I couldn't sort of move properly or talk properly or see properly and this person was coming after me and the way that they were moving was quite dreadful like quite slowly and quite sort of creepily it was like they weren't running towards me it was just this sort of yeah quite dreadful presence and I and I realized you know while I was lying there in the middle of the night once I'd been thinking about it,

I think I always thought that this dream was about being afraid of men, feeling unsafe around men. But in this same week I'd also been um having lots of thoughts and conversations around promoting the work that I'm doing so the online course that I'm doing and you know wanting to share what I'm doing and um marketing always felt quite icky to me and quite incongruous with sharing something that is so primal and I'm sure you agree feels like something that everyone should just get to know and should you make money off it and blah blah blah blah so I'd been sort of dragging all of that around through all the different parts of my mind and you know when I woke up from this

dream I realized that this figure who did have a masculine sort of shape and form it wasn't that I was afraid of um men it was um it was like self-doubt it was like the embodiment of self-doubt that was kind of creeping around after me and once that sort of realization landed I could recognize it and I could look at it and say yes I see you I see what that is and yeah I'm not gonna look at that I'm gonna just sort of know that it's there and I'm just going to turn away and go in the other direction because, yeah, it was just really interesting to kind of reframe that and to look at it from a different angle. Wow, this is blowing my mind.

It's exactly the same in my dream and that's exactly what I thought because there's this sense of someone yeah a masculine male figure trying to get me and yeah what if that is yeah the critic the inner critic inside be interesting to see like if if when we're in getting into our menopause if we like have this dream but we're able to turn around in the dream and just say like well do you know that's why I stopped having the dream because when I was about 25 or whatever I was I had the dream and or maybe it was after I had a baby I think it was and in the dream I I chased this person into a shed and trigger warning for anyone listening, I picked up an axe and just started hacking.

Wow. And then I stopped having the dream. Wow. Oh, that's the ultimate meet the critic moment. It really was. And it was like I could feel it in my body when I woke up after it. Like I had done work. I had really like lay into this feeling and this figure

and absolutely unbridled energy and anger and just taken it all out. And so then I stopped having the dream. And so when I had it last month I was like what do you mean I'm back there again like what why am I feeling like this why am I frightened again why am I suddenly having to face this feeling and yeah then when I looked at it through all of those um sort of I guess yeah through the perspective of of like I said having that um look at how I am in the world and how I show up and how I present myself and how I want to make money with what I'm doing with my life um yeah I thought oh yeah this is

this is self-doubt and this is shame and this isn't actually about men this is this is me this is like something in me that I need to take care of and tend to like a next level moment yeah totally totally one of those moments where you're like oh that's right it's all a game you know it just a game. And this is just the next level for me. And oh, cool. Okay. And I'm going to think that I have it sorted for a while. And then there's going to be some other thing that I have to stare down. Yes. Wow. Fascinating. So I don't know if you know, but if you know this about me, but this is totally my jam, this marketing. Okay. For some reason, and I don't know if you know but if you know this about me but this is totally my jam this marketing okay for some reason and I don't really know why I'm absolutely madly passionate about

marketing I just I find it like I think it's because I find this so fascinating you know when there are people like you and like the other amazing people I get to interview on this podcast and the graduates in red school who are on MLP incredible people who are literally breaking you not literally I always use that word use that word wrong who are breaking new ground when it comes to you know the way we're thinking about health and creativity and expression and you know all the great work that we're doing around the cycle and around menopause and then there's so often imposter syndrome or fear of visibility or challenges around money that that can hijack this incredible thing that's happening and I love unlocking the like finding ways to unlock that whole, that whole shtick.

And I'm actually putting together a course for Red School, which is another conversation, but it's about cycle awareness and business and we're really focused on that. Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah, so needed because it's almost like the last bastion and if we can crack both of those codes together, then that was kind of a disgusting noise but the but the but the sound i was aiming for was like you know this massive explosion of power okay so now is a good time for us to segue to our advert for today which is actually for a program that I'm hosting. I'm so excited about it.

I feel nervous. I feel so proud of it. It's called Your Cyclical Business and it starts on June the 6th. And it's been amazing to watch the circle of teachers, artists, creatives, therapists, coaches, and other purpose-led business owners start to gather for the program. If you're intrigued there's a webinar that you can watch called How Your Menstrual Cycle Can Help You to Create a Thriving Business. You can find it at yourcyclicalbusiness.com and it explores how your cycle can help you to manage imposter syndrome in your business, how it can help you with your marketing, how it can help you to create sustainable work syndrome in your business, how it can help you with your marketing, how it can help you to create sustainable work rhythms so that you can do the work that you're

here to do without burning out. So you can find out all about it at yourcyclicalbusiness.com and we start on June the 6th. it's always good to remember how much time and energy and money big corporations are putting into their marketing in order to fill our world with messages that aren't beneficial and aren't transformative and aren't generative and aren't creative. And that fuels me when I think, okay, well, let's take some of that, let's redirect some of that energy towards things that are really generative and positive. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, I love that that's also, yeah,

just the work of winter or the dream phase or when you're bleeding. I often use that analogy, you know, to teenagers or something, you know, like if you were a business and you had a million dollars to spend, would you just sort of throw it at something without thinking about it or would you really, you know, do your research and reflect on it? This is your time when you're bleeding to do the research on how you want to blow your energy this month. Like that's

where you get to really feel into what's important. I love that. So what does, what does that research look like for you? Great question. Planning for, you know, a day or half a day where I can just be with myself uninterrupted, go and sit in nature with a notebook and lie there or go for a walk or move my body in a way that feels like I want to until something works its way out of me. And, yeah, when I had that dream last month and then went to the beach the next day and sat and wrote and called a friend who's sort of just a creative confidant and, yeah,

just spent some time with that spark, you know, and I guess, you know, creative, I mean, you know, creative creative ideas they can come at any time but to me that's the time when i really take um extra special care of them and um you know and then sort of keep it with me for a whole cycle and see how it evolves and how it wants to move and run it through all of the lenses of each different phase to see what um what it can offer me what it what it wants to sort of bring through me I love the idea of looking at a creative idea through the lenses and I always know that a creative idea has got some legs if it keeps coming back in the different seasons because sometimes you know I've had so many ideas in in my inner winter that haven't come to fruition because you

know there's just always so many more things that we could do aren't there like there's so much we could do and yeah if it keeps popping its head back up in spring and in summer I'm like okay I'm I'm listening to you I see you there yeah yeah yeah so it seems like in probably in this bleed you went down to the I feel a little bit like I'm stalking you because I've watched your videos and stuff so much this morning you went down to the sea and you took your blood you made this great reel of of pouring like offering your blood onto this rock by the sea and I could really feel your reverence and your joy as you were doing that and I saw you had a good exchange with Jane the amazing Jane Hardwick Collings who was saying beautiful and yeah where is that a practice that you do often is that it's something that I've never shared on

social media um and um but I mean I'm you know I've if i'm camping or if i'm with my family or you know i'll find a nice little tree or a little pocket of the river or the ocean or yeah that's sort of um i mean you know if you're out in nature and you it's time to change your cup then it feels like um yeah it just feels natural that you would make a little small ritual out of out of anything really but especially that and um yeah i love the idea that the the earth wants it back and cares for it and loves it and welcomes it and i guess you know when you're using um pads and tampons um you know it's difficult to sort of take it out and then look at it like it's this really special precious beautiful thing because it can feel like rubbish and it might not feel very reverent but that's something that I really love about using

reusable products is because it it kind of takes the rubbish element out of it and you're just left with your blood and you know I think it can be a little bit confronting when you first start doing it because if you've never touched your blood or sort of you know been up close with it then it sort of can be a little bit intense um but after a while you get used to it and then you're just like wow it's amazing and I've actually noticed that in the last few well since I turned 40 my period has gotten a little bit shorter I feel like I've sort of lost a day so my cycle's still like 29 days 28 days but my actual bleed is like four days it used to be like properly five and it's now four and um there's part of me that's like oh it's fading like i'm i'm bleeding less and like i'm already preemptively

missing it um and i'm sure there's people listening who are like, oh, my God, shut up. Like I bleed, you know, like this. And I'm just like, please, just stop it. But, yeah, as someone who, you know, I don't have endometriosis and I don't really have much pain and I just, you know, I mean I don't have to tell you I'm preaching to the choir, but I bloody love my bleed. And so when it feels like it's getting lighter, yeah, I feel like I'm losing my anchor.

And so at that moment when I made that reel, and it was actually last month, it was the day that I, you know, after I had that dream, I've been sitting on that content for a month because I'm in isolation at the moment I can't even leave my house but um yeah when I when I made that little video I was with Richard and his parents and I said oh can we just go and walk over there to where the sun's still hitting the rocks I didn't want to make the reel in front of my in-laws and um I was wondering yeah no no we were sort of

quite far off and then when I pulled the cup out I was really like I mean maybe there's hardly anything in there maybe there's nothing in there so I was just like oh wow I genuinely was like look at what I did look at what I made this is awesome I feel like I learned this from Jane Hardwick Collings or I heard it from her that it's one of the rare occasions when blood falls on the earth that hasn't come from violence something so beautiful about that giving back this life blood yes absolutely blood peaceful blood that's such a nice way of putting it because yeah with the real i shared a quote that um was from maya schwartz and it is menstrual blood is the only blood that doesn't come from violence and yet it's the blood that disgusts you the most and that was part of the inspiration for why I wrote the song

Your Blood is Amazing because I just thought how incredible that, you know, we're totally fine with seeing someone in a movie get their head blown off and blood and guts going everywhere, but the minute someone mentions menstruation everyone's like oh and um and actually you know jane hardwick collings is it collings or collins it's got a g collings collings yeah jane hardwick collings she shared a video um that week that was in response to um the floods and I don't know if you saw it but she was standing there in the rain oh it's gonna make me cry just talking about it she was standing there in the rain and she was you know wearing this kind of hooded um raincoat and she kind of

looked you know there's a lot of foreboding and she was really um quite beseeching and she was do your blood work do do do this like go and give it back and yeah there was I just was so moved by that and I was so moved by this idea that you know there are so many people who never get to a place of being friends with their body and then they go through menopause and then it stops and then it's gone and i just that really really um troubles me that yeah we've you know i also love that quote um at first nations american quote that says at her first bleeding a woman meets her power in her bleeding years she practices it and at menopause she becomes it and it's like you know I'm going to be 42 this year I'm going to be becoming my power I want to practice it and so I was really inspired by Jane's video because I thought I cannot be having any of this self-doubt or any of this shame or any of this um dread around really being proud about the work that I'm doing and being open and sharing it and um if I'm gonna be

on the right path to becoming my power why you are doing such such good work to melt away and dissipate this shame and I think as I've been taking in your work this morning I've just been realizing how important laughter is because shame can't really exist when there's genuine laughter, not mocking laughter. I mean, shame loves that. But if it's genuine, you know, belly laughter, shame can't get a look in anymore, can it? Totally. And I think with any taboo, if you can laugh about it,

then you can laugh about it then you can talk about it and if you can talk about it then that's um that's when things change and I you know I there's this sometimes I think I'm censored and then I think oh I'm not really I mean what would I I'd just say the C word and probably splash blood around everywhere and, you know. But really I think I, yeah, I'm conscious of wanting to make material that's accessible by mainstream because I just really want as many people as possible to think that this is for them and that this is something that they can participate in and share in and express in their own way um because yeah i don't

know if i just feel like i'm running out of time or i feel like fuck i've only got eight years left maybe before i go through menopause myself what what's that 96 cycles? Like they're all precious. I feel like I've got to use them as much as I can. So like, and honestly, you know, like I used to say when I first did the show, like, ha ha, thanks for coming see you in 15 years for my show about menopause. And now I'm like, bloody hell, like shit. And, you know, I was talking to Lara Bryden about this a while ago. He's a naturopath who, you know, takes care of cycles.

I was like, am I going to be having this conversation when I'm 90, like, honestly? Do you know, like, I don't know. I was saying that to Alexandra Pope as well. Like, I'm just like, I mean, how must she feel? Like, she's been doing this work for so long, such amazing work. Her and Sharni, like, yeah, you just, you know, you get to this point where you're like,

I don't have time to muck around. Like, yeah, just got to really dial it up. We all do. Yes. You know, when I turned 40, something like that happened in me like okay so if there's no fucking around now let's go and yeah this this podcast is part of that for me actually we've got to yeah that something happens that there's no time to lose around 40 I think it seems to be anyway that's what I'm experiencing but I want to keep us on this track

of the because I'd love to hear genuinely really want to hear how your creative process evolves through your cycle so as you're coming out of dream phase in a winter and coming into in a spring which you call do or like having lots of fucks the fuck budget is strong um well yeah what does what does this phase look like for you creatively well I guess for me then it's like um that's when I don't spend any I'd really try and be mindful of not spending any energy second guessing myself and if I can see a way through the forest so to speak then um I just double down and I run and I go for it and I don't stop um I mean you know you sort of balance it with that playful lighter kind of spring energy of just being easy and fun with it but also knowing that in that do phase um I've got more energy I've got more fucks and if I waste that then I'll have a

little grief over that later and so I don't want to sell myself short and um yeah, if it's something that I'm really backing, then I go for it and, you know, like I just kind of make sure that every day I'm doing something to kind of push it along and give it legs and, yeah, put some sort of wind in the sails um and then yeah after ovulation i feel like i can take the foot off the accelerator a little bit and just kind of revel in it and enjoy it and maybe um share it with people i feel like when i'm in the do phase i don't um i used to, you know, sort of, you know, be expressing things while I was thinking them and, you know, not sort of being careful to kind of, I don't know, have more fully formed thoughts before I express them.

And, yeah, now in the do phase it's like, yeah, I get a bit smeagol about it. I'm like I know I could spend this energy sort of just spraying it out everywhere, but I really want to be more mindful that I'm properly investing in this thing that is important to me, this goal, this sort of little seed that I want to take care of. And then in the give phase, once I've ovulated, yeah,

to just, yeah, I don't't know enjoy the fruits i suppose and um share it with the people around me and look for feedback when i'm probably more um liable to take it on and you know what do you think about this what do you think about that and to kind of um yeah maybe share the idea or collaborate a little bit or um and then premenstrual take phase autumn um i mean there's no rules really for me in that phase it's kind of like all bets are off and i might you know double down and get in the sandpit and have a sort of big muck around with it or I might just put it on the back burner and not think about it or, yeah, make sure I don't sort of throw the baby out with the bathwater and get rid of the whole thing.

But, yeah, I think I don't have as much structure around that part of the cycle but certainly I really make sure we do and give that I'm um yeah staying with it and holding onto it and you know doing due diligence if that makes sense it sense. How, so in the do phase, you said that you make sure, make sure that you stop second guessing yourself. What helps with that? Jeez, I don't know. I mean, I heard someone say the other day about imposter syndrome.

I know it's there and now I just just work with it you know what I mean and I I just kind of um maybe it was Brené Brown who also said you know it's like I'm getting all of my critic metaphors mixed up but I think I think she talks about knowing your critic is in the it's in the car with you let it be in the back seat but don't put it in the driver's seat and yeah I mean for me in the do phase I I mean it's also about staying focused and so I don't I find if I drink coffee in that phase I absolutely just I'm just absolutely uncontrollable and climbing the walls and there is some kind of unspoken bond between the critic and coffee isn't there yeah it's well because it's like your critic

just goes on steroids you know it's like oh yeah now I'm really going to show you like let's just turn it up to 11 it's yeah it's it's unbearable so yeah I don't I don't drink coffee unless I really am asking for trouble in that phase and in terms of not second guessing myself I guess it's just really um I don't know it's just kind of being firm with with the critic or um just sort of taking the bull by the horns and and understanding that that's going to be an element of that phase, but that I don't have to kind of listen to it. And I guess once you start, or for me, once I start getting little wins of like, oh, oh yeah, I put that along and that felt good.

And I got a bit of feedback there, or I had this little win here, then you start being affirmed for leading from that part of yourself and for being assertive and for driving and for really, you know, being expansive. And then you're on a roll, you know, you just need momentum. I feel for me anyway, it's like, if that imposter syndrome is unchecked, then it can just take out the whole do phase, you know, but if I sort of go, okay, you know, hey, you just stay over there and I'm just going to be over here ticking boxes, then it's like it doesn't get to take over. And then I start feeling like my true idea or my true self is really in play. And then I'm away. It really is the work of protecting that truth that's at the heart of what we're creating, isn't it? And I feel that in Inner Spring.

I feel like this is my blind spot currently in loads of ways that I, I can just easily get anxious in this phase, in my do phase. And so what I'm really trying to practice is how can I keep my nervous system soothed? Because what, what really wants to happen? I don't think I want to be this anxious and jazzed in this, you know, there's something going on. It's my body's trying to show me something. I don't know what it is yet, but I'll keep you posted. And I love that, that idea, Sophie, of, yeah,

soothing your nervous system. And I think, I mean, moving for me, it's like if I don't, if I haven't started moving by sort of day five, day four, then that anxious part feels like it doesn't have anywhere to go and that's when I um re-engage with my gym membership and you know start pumping and punching and foul walking and just yeah really feeling into my body and connecting with that physical sort of expression that maybe I'm not as inclined to when I'm bleeding. But, yeah, soothing your nervous system, I think that's, yeah,

totally key to taking care of the truth. I love that you put it like that. So just last piece here with the take phase with the inner autumn do is that a time when you get when you wrestle with your inner critic is that a time when like do you have more sort of space and ground underneath you to meet the critic is that is it a phase a phase when you're working with that? Do you get taken out by imposter syndrome in that phase? Interesting.

When I first sort of learnt about, you know, understanding my cycle, the bit that was most key to me was realizing i'd been a complete asshole to myself every time i was pre-menstrual um and that i would sort of practice that asshole muscle every month and then it would take me you know days to recover from it and when i and so you know one of I mean the book that I first first read was The Optimized Woman by Miranda Gray and she talks about the premenstrual phase as being the creative phase and I was like well this is cool because I'm a songwriter and instead of being an arsehole, maybe I can be more creative. Let's give that a go. And so for a year I would block out a couple of days

and write songs and it worked, you know. And so I've and back then, you know, I sort of I didn't really have an awareness of how I felt when I was pre ovulatory in the spring slash do phase. And so the first part for me was really about unpicking my self-talk when I was premenstrual. And once I cracked that, I was just I mean, that's why I started banging on about periods all the time. Cause I was like, no, you don't understand. Like you, honestly, you go from zero to hero. Like this is a game changer.

And people were like, yeah, yeah, that's great. But then when I sort of got deeper into it, like you mentioned before, having this sort of anxiety in the spring do phase that was a huge learning curve for me that um yeah I realized I just this part of myself is like so scary you know it's like I'm all good at being relaxed and dreamy and meditative and contemplative and la la la and then whoa like what's going on this is like really overwhelming so I definitely have dealt with imposter syndrome in the do phase like we just talked about but in the you know premenstrual inner autumn take phase I just love that part

of my cycle now it's probably my favorite part of the cycle and yeah I really feel most able to kind of um stay close to the truth and um yeah I love that I'm a bit more irreverent I love performing in that phase because I genuinely don't get distracted by needing to present myself in a way that suits anybody else. And I just please myself. And to my delight as a performer, usually that is what people most want to see you pleasing yourself. No one wants to go to a performance and see someone who's uncomfortable or isn't in their power. And so to be on stage at that part of my cycle always feels like a real gift because um i can just totally be in it um so i didn't mean for that to be a big boast about how um i'm just so good at being pre-menstrual

but um i did that so there you go it's such a powerful reframe because it is it can be so crippling and same for me it was so crippling for so many years and same I read the optimized woman and went huh okay so there's something else going on here and yeah I love the way you express that that the the zero fucks given means that we can yeah we can be freer to be with who we are in our truth and I think you know what you shared about being on stage and people want to see you pleasing yourself I just it's the same in all of life isn't it yeah really yep yep yeah absolutely oh great reframe of of take in a in autumn I love it so for people listening how can they connect with you connect with your work could you tell us a bit about your course and and what you're doing at the moment oh yeah thank you so um my website is lucypeach.com and there you can um yeah see my book or the online courses that i have there's a

link to my ted talk um and the courses that i have there's one called meet your power which is for new bleeders or um people that haven't yet started having a menstrual cycle but know they're about to or people just generally wanting a reframe of the cycle and so that's quite short and then there's explore your power which is a deep dive into each of the four phases and I recommend that people do it with their cycle so they start it on day one and they get to yeah really just explore the nuances of their phases and how they work for them because I guess um in my show it's only an hour long and you don't have time to really go into the nuances or the peculiar, how do I say that word, peculiarities, peculiarities of, you know, what their cycle might look like for them. And, you know, I mean, there's millions and millions of ways

that a cycle can be expressed and show up. So, yeah, Explore Your Power is really about exploring your power. And so the other place is, yeah, Instagram, where I share a lot about my own cycle, Lucy's Peaches, and you can know what day I am um pretty pretty regularly and if you want to laugh it's a good place to go I can really recommend it thank you that means a lot because yeah I really just I think for me anyway it's like I love having fun with it and um yeah just inviting people to to join in in fact I'm going to challenge our listeners in the show notes I'm going to put the link to your

recent day 26 reel because that one really got me laughing and I'm totally on my next day 26 I'm going to come back and look at that because I'm going to need it Lucy thank you thank you for for being so unleashed and so free in your the way you express around the cycle and for all the de-shaming you're doing and the amazing work you're doing with teens and tweens and all of it and for being here with us today thank you so much oh Sophie it's my pleasure thanks for seeing me thanks for having me and thanks for holding space for me and all of the people also exploring their power it's really really nice to be in the club with you oh such a rich and fun and laughter-filled conversation with Lucy there. I hope you enjoyed it too and that it uplifts you and inspires you with whatever you're creating in your life at the

moment. I would love to reiterate the invitation to Your Cyclical Business. It's a program designed to support purpose-led entrepreneurs and business owners to work with the menstrual cycle to create a thriving business one that really serves and nourishes us as well as the people that we're here to serve there's a free webinar well the replay of a free webinar called how your menstrual cycle can help you to create a thriving business and you can find it at yourcyclicalbusiness.com if you're interested in joining us for the program there are teaching videos in the program there are live sessions where we'll gather as a community to take menstruality medicine circle journeys to harvest your cyclical wisdom and apply it to your business as it's going

today to your current challenges and your goals and we'll also have ongoing monthly group coaching after the live event after the live round is complete so that we can keep meeting to grow this momentum of cyclical sustainable business together so again you can find out more at yourcyclicalbusiness.com and I can't wait to get started so thank you for listening today thank you for tuning in and I'll see you next time and until then keep living life according to your own brilliant rhythm