The Menstruality Podcast - Transform Your Health and Vitality through Cycle Awareness *Retreat Special* (Lisa Hendrickson Jack)

Episode Date: January 13, 2022

Cycle awareness can be a powerful key turner when it comes to menstrual health as well as overall health. The menstrual cycle is a stress sensitive system, which means it can show us how and where we can course correct in order to feel more vital and healthy.In this episode we speak with Lisa Hendrickson Jack, Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner and author of The Fifth Vital Sign about how to translate the powerful feedback we receive from our cycle. This is session two of our special Wild Power Retreat series, where we’re sharing inspiring conversations about how menstrual cycle awareness can help you enhance your vitality, creativity and leadership in 2022.We explore:How your cycle is your fifth vital sign and how it can guide you to better health.The connection between menstrual health and overall vitality, and how to translate the feedback your cycle gives you into action to enhance your health.What a healthy cycle looks like, and how to track your cycle when you have menstrual symptoms in a way which will support cycle healing.---Registration is open for our 2022 Wild Power Immersion is now open. You can join here: https://www.wildpower.online. ---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.schoolLisa Hendrickson Jack: @fertility.friday - https://www.instagram.com/fertilityfriday

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, change makers and creatives to explore how you can unashamedly claim the power of the menstrual cycle to activate your unique form of leadership for yourself, your community and the world. Hey, welcome back. Today is part two of a special series called the Wild Power Retreat. You can register to be part of the retreat at

redschool.net forward slash wild dash power dash retreat. Okay, let's get started with session two, how menstrual cycle awareness can transform your health and vitality. Okay, everyone, welcome to session two of the Wild Power Retreat, where we're sharing inspiring conversations about how you can enhance your leadership, your vitality, your creativity this year through the power of menstrual cycle awareness. And today we're so lucky to be joined by the amazing Lisa Hendricks and Jack. Lisa, thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you for having me. So today's conversation is about how menstrual cycle awareness can be a real key turner when it comes to menstrual health as well as

overall health and vitality which is so important because so many of us are living with health challenges and there's so many autoimmune conditions burnout happening and the menstrual cycle is this amazing stress sensitive system so in that way it's so good at showing us how and when and where we can course correct to feel more health and vitality in our lives and Lisa's going to tell us all about this today. She's a certified fertility awareness educator, a holistic reproductive health practitioner and the author of The Fifth Vital Sign. She helps to clarify the connection between our menstrual cycles and our overall health so that we can access the power of our cycles and her fertility friday podcast which is so awesome has had over a million

downloads that's amazing that's actually an old bio it's almost it's almost three now yeah incredible and it's you know as you can see from the amount of downloads it's this powerful resource for information about both fertility awareness and everything to do with menstrual cycle health and the menstrual cycle. It's a really profound resource. So I recommend that you check it out, everyone listening. Let's start with, could you share some of the ways that for you, menstrual cycle awareness has helped you to feel more vital and more healthy? Yes, that's such a great question. I'm, there's a lot of ways. So I'm thinking of some of the most profound, I think, for me, there was just the basic, wow, factor of learning that I wasn't fertile every day. And so when I first started charting in my early 20s, I really was just

excited to be able to have a method of birth control that didn't require anything. So that helped me to feel more vital just because I was able to understand my body and kind of work around it instead of actually changing it with hormones. But then I very quickly discovered cycle problems. So through charting, I was able to identify that I had an issue with my thyroid. And I do wonder to, you know, I think to some extent to have, you know, my family have diabetes. And so I feel like to some extent I could have been predisposed to PCOS like symptoms because my cycles were quite long. And so through charting, I was able to not only identify those issues, but over the years to help to get my cycle into the normal range. So I can remember when I was in my early 20s, and I started charting. And at first, I thought 45 day cycles were fine. But then I quickly discovered they weren't. And I remember booking an appointment with a doctor.

And, you know, with this explicit purpose of like, okay, I know this isn't normal. So what can I do? And obviously what he told me was you can go on the pill and there's nothing you can do. And that was it. And so the interesting part of my journey is that I was able to get my cycles down in that normal range. And I was able to address severe period pain issues over the years as well and get my cycles into that range without like so basically doing exactly the opposite of what the doctor told me was impossible um so I I could list a lot more but I feel like that's a good start it is a brilliant start and actually later on I want to talk about um cycle symptoms so maybe we can get into some of it then. So you talk about the cycle being

our fifth vital sign, which I just absolutely love. Could you share with us firstly, what is a vital sign and how our menstrual cycles are a vital sign for us? Yeah. So a vital sign is essentially a measure of how our body is functioning. And we're most familiar with, say our heart rate, our blood pressure, our body temperature, those types is functioning. And we're most familiar with, say, our heart rate, our blood pressure, our body temperature, those types of things. And we all have the sense that if you go to the doctor and they measure your blood pressure, you know, if it's off, it'll tell them something. But more specifically, if it's too high, for example, it's going to the doctor knows a handful of reasons why it could be too high. So not only does it tell that something's wrong, but it also provides a bit of a roadmap to figure out what it

could be. And so with the menstrual cycle, it does much the same thing. It's really fascinating. And often when I say menstrual cycle, depending on the audience, they'll think period. But when I say menstrual cycle, I'm talking about the whole thing. So from the first day of your period to the last day before your next one, it includes the total length of your cycle. It includes your period and the quality and length and all of those things of your period. But it also includes ovulation, your cervical fluid symptoms, and the duration of time between ovulation and your period. So the luteal phase, we can look at all of those separate pieces of the menstrual cycle, identify what's normal. And then for someone who is aware of the different

issues that can affect the different aspects of the cycle, when we identify that there's something wrong, similar to the blood pressure, we can, you know, look at that. So I think an easy example is cervical fluid. So if you have some sort of discharge every single day, that's not normal. So that falls outside of the normal parameters. And there's a number of things that could indicate it could be something as simple as a yeast infection, it could be a sign of abnormal cervical cells, like what we see in cervical dysplasia. So even just something like that, understanding what's normal and what's not can help us to identify. And it's not necessarily a small thing, but kind of a small thing, like an infection

to something much more serious, like PCOS or HA, hypothalamic amenorrhea, or even the thyroid issue or other, other problems. Beautiful. Can we look at the connection between menstrual health and the menstrual cycle and overall health and vitality? Like how could we, people who are tracking, how can we translate the feedback that our cycle is giving us into action that can actually enhance our health and vitality? That's a good question. I think what I find to be very powerful is that as you track your cycle, not only can you see if there are kind of big problems, but you can also see how your cycle fluctuates depending on what's happening in your life. So if you are really stressed, if you've got a really crazy job or you have a really crazy month or

something like that, you might notice certain differences. So common differences that some of my clients might see would be like a delayed ovulation, a change in the length and quality of their luteal phase. So for anyone who's been charting for a while, you'll know that typically the luteal phases is fairly constant. So the ultimate range is somewhere between, you know, 10 to 17 days, but most commonly it's somewhere between 12 to 14 in a healthy cycle. So 12 to 14 days between ovulation and your next period. And so for example, if you have, if you start a new exercise routine and you're working out four days a week, and you know, you might notice that all

of a sudden your luteal phase moves from 12 days to 10, or you start to notice that instead of that one day of spotting before your period, you have three. And so to answer your question, you can basically, I feel like charting invites you into a conversation with your cycle. And because your body can't talk to you with words, and you can't talk back with words, but you can start to learn what affects you personally. And sometimes it can feel unfair, because we do know that there are women out there who can do all the things they can,

it seems like it, I mean, I would say, show me the charts, right? But let's just for argument's sake, they can do all the things they can exercise and do all that stuff and seem to have a normal cycle. But you know, for many of us, when we start charting, we realize, wow, I actually can't do it all. If I like drink four cups of coffee, and, you know, don't go to bed until two o'clock in the morning and drink alcohol and whatever, every day, like, you know, if I compound all of those habits, then my cycle actually responds poorly. So you kind of have to learn to, to adjust. And I think my favorite part of charting is that it's very specific to you. So it's this very specific and unique measure of what you can do. And I feel like it helps you to understand and learn your limits.

So I hope that answers the question. But I really, I mean, I've been doing this for so many years. I just find it so fascinating. And it's been such an interesting journey to take women through this process and share it with them and see the realizations that they have about what affects their bodies. Yeah. Could you give some examples? I just love to hear from your practice, what, what you've seen people, women that you've worked with people with periods that you've worked with, how they've been able to change their health situation through getting into,

I love the way you said, getting into this conversation with their cycle. Well, so I recently released on my podcast, my FAM practitioner series. So there was several episodes where I interviewed practitioners who I had taken them through this journey as individuals, but also for them to be able to work with their clients. And one of my practitioners, so I'll share her story because she shared it on the podcast. But so she was in the class and she's in her premenopause phase. And so she's, I think, late 40s would be the age range, just for argument's sake there. And one of the things that happened mid class was that she started bleeding, and it wouldn't stop. So it she bled every day, for literally like months.

And so we had a number of sessions. And just to be clear, that's not okay. There's never a time that it's okay to bleed for a month, just to put it out there. I know that it's a common thing that happens to many women in pre menopause, but this is never okay. So this is also an excellent example of the menstrual cycle is a vital sign. So as we were working together, because I think one of the things, especially for practitioners that are getting into this work, we always kind of want the magic. So if we hear that someone's bleeding every day, we kind of want this like, well, you know, what supplements, what magic?

So of course, the first thing I'm going to say is go to your doctor, get an ultrasound, et cetera. That's what you do when you're bleeding every day. You make sure that there's nothing serious going on. But beyond that, you know, I took I take all of my clients through process. And essentially, it starts with, you know, how are you eating? How are you sleeping? Let's look at these foundational factors.

And in her case, she was a long term vegetarian. I think it was like 35 years. And in our assessment, based on what I know about the human body, you know, her protein intake was just way too low. Like, I think she was somewhere like 3040 grams a day or something like that. And an adult human needs like 80 to 100. And if she's active, she needs more. So we started there. And we literally went through. And so she worked with her doctor as well with her natural health practitioners. So she had a team going. But ultimately, the bleeding didn't stop until she really started to sort out this protein issue, as well as looking at some of those other foundational factors. So in her case, over the course of,

you know, several weeks of implementing what we had spoken about, she was able to stop the bleeding and come down off of some of the progesterone and other things that she was taking by identifying those root causes. And what I found interesting about this was that I was the only one that was looking at that as a possible issue. Because when you have a woman in that age range, you know, this bleeding, unfortunately, is a very common issue. So they kind of just look at it as okay, well, she's premenopausal. But it's like, no, like, there's plenty of women in premenopause that don't bleed for two months, like, this is not okay. So like public service announcements, not okay. But that's an

example of how the charting through this process, it really transformed because for any woman who's listening, like I personally have not yet reached that stage. So I'm just shy of 40 here. But for any woman who has gone through that, if you bleed heavily for months, hysterectomy is on the table. You know what I mean? Like endometrial ablation is on the table. Hormonal IUDs are on the table. There's a lot of things on the table if you're bleeding like that. And so to be able to avoid some of those more invasive medical procedures is life-changing. God, this is just illustrate so clearly why every person who practices cycle awareness is actually changing the world because it's cultivating this momentum of people who are entering into conversation with their body rather than sort

of being at the, just beaten around by the weather of the medical system you know and the medical system is amazing in many ways and supported in many ways but in like in this case you were able to resolve that with much simpler diet and lifestyle changes well she did all the work she was you know what I mean like she did all the work she did she made the changes and it was a very difficult kind of change, especially given her history. And so in the episode, she goes into it in a lot more detail, you know, I try to meet people where they're at. So I'm not saying go eat steak, I'm saying find a way to get protein. And so that the conversation started with, okay, can we do protein shakes? What can we do? And she was kind of like, I don't want to live off of protein shakes. And so she had to kind of make some of those hard choices of how am I going to get more protein? And that involved incorporating some meat, which was a huge,

very difficult decision for her. So it's certainly a very compelling story. And I would say charting by itself is part of it. You know, like looking at the problem, like you could have a leaky pipe and just staring at it, like, so looking at the problem, that's part of it, like, you have to know that the pipe is leaking, sure. But then you have to, you know, I think the most important takeaway here is that you have to know that it's not like what's actually normal and what's not, because there's a lot of things that are not normal that we're kind of told are and we're kind of told that it's fine, because's very common period pain is a great example of that irregular bleeding or abnormal bleeding stuff like that we we have to get clear on what's normal what's not in order to be able to utilize the cyclism

as a vital sign if this conversation is inspiring you to deepen your menstrual cycle awareness practice this year, and you'd like support from Alexandra, Sharni, and a community of like-minded cycle-aware people, we invite you to visit wildpower.online, where you can find out more about our 2022 Wild Power Immersion. This is six weeks of inspiring teachings live coaching sessions with alessandra and sharni a supportive community to help you awaken to the inner architecture of your cycle so that you can embrace the full force of your cyclical intelligence and create a new power story for yourself and the world you can find out more at wildpower.online that's wildpower.online can you highlight maybe five or six of the things that people that commonly come up that people

think might be normal but actually aren't normal and that need some attention? So I think the first thing would be around periods, I would say. Certainly I've alluded to period pain a couple of times because I certainly had that experience for a long time. So painful periods are very common. A lot of women have painful periods. In my practice, I have to make a point of having a specific section in my intake form, where I ask about that, because I think so many women are used to having period pain, and they've had it for so long that they don't even consider it. So even though they're seeking support with their cycles for other things, it's like often they're not even looking at, because it's just like, okay, that's just how it is. It is very, very common. I think a lot of women have some degree of pain. Most probably.

It's less common for women to have no pain. But with that said, other than childbirth, you know, there's no real situation in life where, you know, moderate to severe pain is considered to be normal. And so when my personal experience of period pain, when it was at the worst, I would often be on the floor for hours. And I remember in my 20s thinking to myself, this is like labor without a baby. This is horrible. And I remember having conversation with one of my male cousins who was like, that's impossible, Lisa, shut up. And then I went on to have two children vaginally. And I could tell you that the period pain was worse in my case than the greater, like the part of labor before the transition. And what was worse about it is that it just lasted

all day. Whereas when I was in, I know everyone's experience with labor is different, but the contractions or surges or whatever you want to call them, they came in waves. And so I could actually address it, breathe through it, and then it would stop, whereas the period pain would not stop. So anyways, I could go on about that, but I think that's a big one. And then I would also just say kind of period abnormalities. I think most women have never even thought like, you can talk to your girlfriends all day, but no one talks about how much they bleed or how many pads they go through or those kinds of things. So for the most part, our experience is just what we've seen for ourselves. So that was brought to my attention when I became a fertility awareness educator,

you know, when I started learning and started working with clients, because my periods were always heavy. And I had clients, you know, were within the normal range, but very, very light. And I remember thinking, wow, like people can bleed that little. And in the same vein, you know, there's plenty of women who are like, wow, people can bleed that much. So I would say that's a huge one, because you could be bleeding very light, or you could be bleeding very, very heavy, heavier than what is considered normal, and not know that that might warrant an ultrasound. So in my case, my heavy periods were a sign of fibroids, which I, you know, advocated for an ultrasound in my early 20s, because this was in my family. And turns out I had them, they've never grown to be a big problem, but they're there. But my point is that my periods

are super heavy, and it was indicative of this issue. And so that would be another thing where if your periods are really heavy, you might not even know that that's not normal to have over 60 to 80 milliliters of bleeding. So over about three to four ounces, I'm not sure if my conversion is on point there. But But yeah, if you're bleeding is super heavy, or if you have a lot of pain, that in many cases should warrant a checkup with your doctor, an ultrasound to rule out any irregularities. And if the period is really severe pain, you may at some point want to consider screening for endometriosis, because they say it takes an average of eight to 12 years for it to be diagnosed.

And I mean, if you talk to anyone, any woman who's had really bad pain, she'll tell you how many times she's been to the doctor. It's completely crazy. So I mean, in addition to that, I think we could add, you know, other conditions, I think, I don't know that we necessarily consider it to be okay to have totally irregular periods. But certainly in our culture, I don't know that people say that it's normal necessarily. But when you have irregular cycles, typically, they just put you on the pill. And I think it is helpful to know that women who have irregular, so long irregular cycles, fewer than eight cycles a year are, you know, that's classic kind of PCOS potentially diagnostic there. And women with PCOS tend to have a much higher

likelihood of developing diabetes later in life. So it's a metabolic condition. And so in a sense, like going on the pill and just getting those withdrawal bleeds regularly doesn't necessarily address that potential underlying problem, doesn't necessarily educate the woman that she might have this predisposition that she might want to be looking at. So I think there's a lot of examples where, and even HA, hypothalamic amenorrhea, when women are not having periods at all for six months or more. I know that when I was growing up, certainly it's kind of normalized, like, oh, if she's an athlete, if she's active, it's kind of expected that her period, but when you, when you're active and your period is disrupted or

it goes away, it basically means that you're not eating enough food and you're exercised, like you're over-exercising, under eating, like this is a classic kind of thing. So I think we could have, I could continue this conversation. I could think of all kinds of examples, but hopefully that at least gives you that sense that there's a lot of things that our culture kind of says, yeah, it's, it's fine. It's common. It's something, but we should really be looking at those things because our cycle really does kind of keep us in check. It really does respond in real time to what's going on. And if it's not, if you are a female body human being of reproductive age, and you are not having regular ovulatory menstrual cycles,

then that's a problem, period. What do you recommend that people track? And maybe they've got some of the symptoms that you're talking about? What do you recommend that they're tracking and looking at every day? That's a good question. So you can start to get a sense of your cycles, even in a very basic way, even just by downloading a period tracker and just noting when your periods are coming. I think that's something just to be aware of that it doesn't, you don't have to go all the way into the pool depending on your comfort level. But if you're wanting to, I would certainly say, well, yeah, start with tracking your periods. If you're not on hormonal contraceptives and having actual periods,

then you can also start to look at your cervical fluid. So that's something I think most women who are cycling have noticed, but may not have actually known what was going on. So that can be that feeling of wetness that you have at certain times, or when you notice a bunch of, you know, lotioning kind of stuff in your underwear, or when you're wiping when you go to the bathroom, and it's really slippery. So I would say just start paying attention to that, you know, you can just start wiping with intention. And then you could just, you could just know, like what the consistency was like, or just a couple of words, like when it started when it stopped.

Exactly. Like if just at the most basic level it could be like when is that stuff there and when is it not so cervical fluid looks like uh creamy white hand lotion sometimes looks like uh stretchy raw egg yolks or sorry egg whites not the yolk if it looks like eggs it's probably something probably not like what we're going for here um but the clear stretchy uh consistency and also that feeling of really just slipperiness or lubrication. So just paying attention to that. And it's like, is it there? Is it not? So in a healthy cycle, after you have your period, you would start approaching ovulation. And so the cervical fluid is basically the sign that your estrogen is rising and that ovulation

is coming up. So there's a part of your cycle in a healthy cycle where you would see this and it would be pretty obvious and it'd be very different to how it is on the other days. And then once you ovulate, dries up, goes away. And so there's that shift from having this lubricative, lotiony cervical fluid to basically having nothing really there. And so even just that can be very, very helpful, because that's how you can identify your fertile days, that's going to identify

ovulation. And you can also predict your period based on tracking that. So just with cervical fluid only, I always say this for teenage girls, because I always get the question like, well, what kind of birth control do you recommend for teenage girls? And I say condoms. And then I say that it's very, tracking your cycle doesn't have to mean that you're using it for a contraceptive. It can just be very useful. And if you're just, even if you're tracking your cervical fluid, once it goes away, you can start to pay attention to how many days between it drying up and your period. And you can start to be able to predict that, which is great.

Who doesn't want to know when their period is coming? Um, and then if you really want to go all gung ho, then buy a thermometer and start checking your basal body temperature each day. So the basal body temperature helps you to confirm ovulation. And then you can get kind of a more specific sense of how many days from ovulation to your period. And, um, and I think just that piece of information is really transformative for women because we're, it's just so basic. This is a biological function of our body. It's very scientific. You can plot your temperature on a graph in your apps and things like that. And I know that was one of the things that was just so interesting to me when I first

started charting because it's literally like basic science 101 here. And it's a cycle. So every time you have a period, you move towards ovulation, like this continues happening. So it once you've tracked, you know, three to six cycles, it actually becomes quite straightforward and quite kind of second nature. And you kind of think to yourself, this was going on this whole time. And I didn't know. Why weren't we taught this at school? Because it just keeps doing it. You know, I've been tracking my cycles now for 20 years. Like it just keeps happening. Yeah. Our bodies are amazing. Are there specific activities that you recommend for people at the different phases of the cycle to help them to

have more health and vitality so for example in um at menstruation what do you tend to recommend for people who say are stressed burnt out feeling low in energy um yeah could you share some ideas around that sure um i've been thinking a lot about this because over the last couple years it's gotten so popular for people to talk about like okay in this phase of the cycle we should do this and we should eat this food and so I think my answer might be a little anticlimactic I I think that I don't think it needs to be so complicated I think it's very trendy right now that everyone's like talking about all these different things and I think that there's certainly value to that so in the general sense to answer the question I think it's very trendy right now that everyone's like talking about all these different things. And I think that there's certainly value to that.

So in the general sense, to answer the question, I think that it's really helpful to track your cycle, to understand that there are different phases and to start to pay attention to your energy levels and just your general feelings at the different stages of the cycle. I think for most, there's never an all, but for most, for most women who are tracking their cycles, you know, I think many of us notice that we have more energy towards, you know, once our periods are finished. And as we're approaching ovulation, many of us do notice that we have more energy. I mean, depending on the situation, I know some women have issues with histamine.

So around ovulation, they're not necessarily feeling their best, but I think that the majority of women tend to have more energy around that time and feel a little bit, you know, more kind of outgoing. And then once ovulation happens, and I know that Alexandra Pope and Shani talk about this a lot, you know, with the phases of the menstrual cycle, like the seasons, but once you've ovulated and you kind of move into this different phase of energy. So I think there's certainly a balance to be had there. I think for each person who is tracking their cycle, I don't think that you need to be tied to it to the point that you have like

stringent rules about what you're going to do. But I think that it's helpful to honor what you actually feel. I had a conversation with a client and friend a couple of years ago and it was, I don't know, I just got a kick out of it because she's really big into like working out fitness and stuff like that. And she like, she does these challenges. So she's like doing this like 40 nature, right? And she's like hardcore, right? So she'll, it doesn't matter if she's bleeding, she's just gonna like go day 40, right? And I'm just sitting there like the peanut gallery, like, you know, you could just like not do that on your period, right? Like, you know, you could just like, sit that out. Like, I'm just like, you could, I'm just like, I'm not saying you have to, but you could. And she was kind of like, huh?

I just find this to be so funny because this is just what I do all the time. And she was like, kind of like, wow. So I think that's my answer. Like, give yourself a break. You don't need to do everything all the time. I think I did a really interesting interview with Elisa Vidi and she called it a, what did she call it? She had a word for it, like an Euphradian rhythm. I don't know, Euphradian? Anyways.

I'm not sure. I don't know, but she had a word for it. There's circadian, but then there was something else. I'm totally butchering it. My apologies. But the point of her example was to say that we live in this masculine world and it's a 24 hour clock and we're always trying to think of every day as the same. So when you're a woman or a female person, a person in a female body, and you have this cycle and it's like a 20, whatever day cycle. But the point is that you don't have to live the same day all the time. Instead, you can look at a cycle and organize your exercise routines over the course of the cycle, organize your rest days and your active days and things like that based on the whole cycle.

And when you have those couple of days where you don't necessarily feel like going out there, don't necessarily have all that energy, that's okay because there's other days that you have tons of energy that you can kind of like balance it out over the cycle. Yeah. Beautiful. Interestingly, Nat Martin, who we have up next in the world power series, is going to go through phase by phase, inner season by inner season, talking about how we can adapt our movement practice and our exercise practice. That was a brilliant segue that you just did. I did an interview with Jenny Hulbert I think her name is and she does this whole conversation about the exercise because I mean I'm not much

of a fitness person and I exercise but I'm not I do not specialize like this is not what I'm teaching my clients but she she went into it in a lot of detail and I think there's a lot of value to that to actually look at your exercise routine over the course of the cycle. And I mean, I think on the one hand, just because of my personality and because this is something that's been part of my life for literally two decades, like since I basically knew myself, I've been doing this. So for me, I think I kind of maybe more naturally fall into those habits. Like I'm not doing a run when I have my period. Like I'm just not, but like, if you want to, like, that's cool, but I'm just not. And I think it's so interesting that we have to have these conversations to give ourselves permission to like not do that.

But I think that the reason for that is because most women don't necessarily have like 15, 20 years of conscious cycling under their belt. Like this, maybe one day we'll get to the point where it's just normal for women to just be tracking their cycles and be just in kind of innately aware of the differences in energy, as opposed to having somebody come on a podcast and tell you. Yes. Yes. To that world, please. I've got a quick fire round of questions here. Okay. Ready? How do you track your cycle? How do I track? So I track on paper. I've experimented with all the things. So when I first started tracking, it was like 2001 or whatever. So there was like no or 2000. But

obviously, like I didn't even my cell phone had a green screen like there was no texting so there was no apps and over the years I've tried different apps and things like that but I always find that I just go back to paper so I made a workbook and I use that I'm the same okay how do you take care of yourself on day one of your cycle of your bleed? Oh, that's a good question. What do I do on day one of my bleed? I usually, so I'm not, I got it, man. I'm not a perfect human being. So I don't always have my perfect schedule. You know what I mean? Like sometimes I end up with like a call on that day or like I'm teaching a class and I'm always regretting it. But for the most part, what I do is just relax. Like I sometimes I'll order food because I don't want to cook. And, you know, even though for the most part, I have addressed my period pain issues.

I still, they're still there, I think, for anyone who's struggled with severe pain. So I guess what I'm saying is I still have to take it easy like if I really did try to like run an Olympic style match I would be in more like I would be in some pain I think I would I would so long story short I try to just take it easy and it's okay there's some more more of that gorgeous permission that you're giving now. Like, and nothing happens. Everybody like no one dies. Everyone still eats. It's all fine. The business doesn't collapse. We can do this people. Okay. You're premenstrual and life throws you a challenging curve ball. What's the very first thing you do well I think um knowing myself I try not to like send emails like that day I try I try like not to like answer things so I

insituate because I mean when I premenstrual I mean what's really interesting and I like I've experimented with my cycle over so many years. A few several years ago, I did this experiment, I kind of cut out some sugar, and I was like, boosting my progesterone. And my luteal phase increased from like 12 days to 14 days. And so it's like I have a stronger luteal phase now that I'm in my late 30s than I did when I was in my 20s. So it's really interesting. The point of that is that my PMS symptoms generally have kind of lessened over the years. Not that I ever I never had bad PMS or anything. But my husband would tell you that maybe there's certain things he wouldn't want to talk to me about at that time. So I guess what I'm saying is that generally, yes, I am more emotional,

but what's so it's just been so interesting to me that over the past couple of years, it's been less like it's been less of a issue than it would have been in earlier years. Like I'm answering these fire round questions really long. I love hearing everything you're saying. And that's really good practical advice. Do you know, if you premenstrual and something happens, just don't send the email, write it and just let it sit there. Definitely. At least like a day or two. Yeah. We're going to have to wrap up. So if, for anyone that's listening, if you have your, your wild power journal with you, there's a section here for you to harvest your golden nugget from this conversation.

So you can find your way to do that. And Lisa, do you have any final words that you'd like to share about cycle awareness and health and menstrual health? Well, I think we covered a lot today. I think for anyone who's watching or listening, who, for whom this is new for, or you're kind of somewhere on that journey, I would just say, keep going, don't make it too complicated and just kind of keep tracking. I mean, for the most part, there's always another cycle. And so I look at things in series of six and 12 cycles. And it's the most fascinating thing is to be able to look over a year of cycles and kind of see where you've come and how your body responded to different things. So I would say, keep going. Beautiful. How can people connect with you? If anyone's listening and they have

some of these cycle symptoms that we've talked about, how, how can they connect with you, learn, learn with you, work with you? Well, thanks for that. So if you enjoyed this conversation, you'd probably enjoy the podcast. So you can type fertility Friday in your favorite podcast player. I'm almost at episode 400 at the time we're recording this crazy. And then also the topics that we talked about today, I've written about in the fifth vital sign so that's available on Amazon and I'm also on Instagram at fertility Friday so lots of places thank you thank you so much Lisa so the wild power retreat is going to continue in two days time with session three as I mentioned with Natalie K Martin about how the menstrual cycle awareness can ground you in body wisdom and how you can adapt

your movement and your exercise practice to actually harness the powers of each phase of your menstrual cycle of each inner season. Lisa, thank you so much. I feel like this conversation was so practical, so grounded, so fun. And I really appreciate everything you've shared with us. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you so much for having me it was great thank you for joining us for part two of our special podcast series the wild power retreat you can register to be part of the retreat and receive our emails watch the retreat videos and download our retreat journal at redschool.net forward slash wild dash power dash retreat. I'll put the link in the episode page in the show notes. If you are loving this podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. It'll help other people

to find us. And I hope to see you in a couple of days for our next episode. And until then, keep living life according to your own brilliant rhythm.