TONTS. - Period Power with Lucy Peach

Episode Date: June 18, 2022

Musician, TED talker, comedian, writer and wearer of the best red sparkle jumpsuit you've ever seen Lucy Peach is a powerhouse of a woman who teaches that menstrual cycles are not a curse but could just be your greatest super power! This is an episode that was recorded in 2019 for another podcast I made called Just Make The Thing but I think it is absolutely still incredibly relevant and I hope you get as much out of it as I did. Music from Lucy's The Power of the Period performance at TEDxPerth.Hear more from Lucy at www.mygreatestperiodever.com, on Instagram @LucysPeaches and Facebook Lucy Peach.For more from Claire you can head to www.clairetonti.com or @clairetonti on instagramYou can email the show at [e-mail] credits:Editing - RAW Collings and Claire TontiTheme music - Avocado Junkie Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, this is Tonce, a series of in-depth interviews about emotions and the way they shape our lives. I'm your host, Claire Tonte, and I'm really glad you're here. Each week, I speak to writers, activists, experts, thinkers, and deeply feeling humans about their stories. And this week, I have a really special episode to share with you that's an old episode. It's from my other podcast, Just Make the Thing, which I stopped making a few years ago. And that show was all about

creativity and why people make the things they do and how we get creative and why we do it. And I wanted to share this conversation with Lucy Peach with you today, because I think it's super relevant to what I've been talking about on Tons, particularly when it comes to women and women's bodies and our hormones and how to better care for ourselves. And she's just so bloody wise and funny and wonderful. So here she is, Lucy Peach. Hello, I'm Claire Tonti. This is my podcast, Just Make the Thing, a show for people who want to start a thing and keep on making it. I had the joy of talking to Lucy at her home in Perth, and we nestled up in her loft to talk about life, about womanhood, about the power of periods,

about her life story, and what it means to be a woman living now, about our power of periods, about her life story and what it means to be a woman living now, about our power, about our fragility, and really about the power of periods and how we should be talking more about them. There is a bit of rage talk as well. If you are someone who is a woman or knows a woman or lives with a woman or is the parent of a woman, this episode is absolutely for you. Here she is, Lucy Peach. How did you start on that whole train of fertility stuff that you're on now? And nice that you call it fertility or just interesting because I'm just like, consider that I'm obsessed with periods. Well, you know, like everything, it was sort of a culmination of the time in my life and,

you know, the life stage and all of that kind of thing, because I was 27 and I was really, you know, looking for a challenge. And I got this job as a sexual health educator. And I'm just so, I think I've been thinking about this a lot lately, how just grateful I am. I don't know if I believe in fate or destiny or anything like that, but just I'm so glad I had that job at that time because I was privileged to be in a position where I was paid to learn all of these things, you know, to just to be working down the hall from the largest sexual health library in the southern hemisphere.

And, you know, if I didn't have something I needed to do that moment I could just go into the library and just randomly pick out a book and it was mental there were so many things that you just didn't know you didn't know you know I remember reading this book in my first week and it was called C-Word, A Declaration of Independence, which is a fantastic book. Everyone should read it. It is just incredible in terms of what's the study of words called again? Is it like etymology? Etymology? Yeah, it's very closely linked to that word that's the study of worms.

It's not that, but yeah, etymology. So it talks about just the language around you know women's body parts and where they come from and what they mean and the weight and you know all the connotations and how they are so powerful for so many different reasons to different people and you know all these things that you just don't really consider in your normal life no well you don't get taught you don't get taught that's right unless you go and study gender studies or women's studies or yeah whatever everyone you know you've probably had a similar experience where you get a bit of a cobbled education

you know meeting people and reading things and being exposed to things on the internet but yeah to be at that time immersed in that culture of sex positivity, of just openness and, you know, I had a two-and-a-half-year-old and so I really was so informed to just really be open and curious. And so the way that I parented him and the way that I, you know, conducted myself in relationships was really informed by just that that education and so it was yeah just a really a really amazing thing and then I read this book called The Optimized Woman which is sort of what started me on this whole menstrual

mission. Power mission. So was there a time in your life where you like so did you what kind of house did you grow up in did you not know much about sort of women's cycles or hormones or sexuality in that way? So I was born in 1980. I grew up in a pretty suburban part of Perth and my parents were in a sort of, I guess you call it Pentecostal church. So it was very straight. It was very protected, very sheltered, very, you know,

I only played with people if their parents were Christians, like really quite sheltered. So there wasn't, I guess, a lot of openness around sexuality, but something that really flavoured my childhood, I guess, was my mum just being really uh open about bodies so she called it um a vulva you know instead of a vagina yeah and I don't actually know why she knew to do that but nobody else everyone was like no Lucy it's a vagina we don't know what a vulva is you know know, my friends and other kids.

Yeah. And just, you know, like I kind of, I look back on the way my mum was and she never said things like, oh, well, your nose is this or your legs are that or you're this or you're that. She never labelled us. And we weren't really, yeah, cultured to sort of do that to each other. We were just really quite left to just be how we were and I think that sort of sense of self really came from that.

Yeah. Sort of what you were asking. It does, yeah, because I'm just so fascinated by how people end up in the jobs they do and I often think childhood is so visceral and so up close to then who we become. You know, when you're a kid you've got so much less pretentiousness and walls built up. So did you have a really vivid you're a kid you've got so much less pretentiousness and walls built up. So did you have a really vivid imagination as a kid?

Yes. I mean, I think I always had a real sense of wanting to share what I knew. You know, like in school when you had news, even if it wasn't my turn, I would just feel like, oh, my God, but this is the thing. And it wasn't like, I don't know, I mean, I probably am an attention seeker and I like, you know, I'm a performer so there's a bit of that. But it wasn't like I wanted to be the centre of attention.

It was just that I genuinely felt that everyone would be better off if they knew this thing that I knew. And if I didn't tell them, I would just burn in my seat. You know, they'd give you their hand on the back and be like, it's your hotel, yes, it's my time. Yeah, it's my time. And so, yeah, I think I always, you know, I remember my sister and I used to have a bath together

and we used to play this game where we'd pretend to be newsreaders, you know, and we'd, you know, interview each other in the bath and we'd put on our newsreader voice and about the things we'd discovered. And, yeah, I guess I was always, I enjoyed that, you know. So it's not really that big a leap from what I'm doing now. No, that doesn't sound very similar. And in the bath, you know, that's like, you know, the shower, the bath. Yeah, your vulva's right there.

That's right. It's all part of it. It's tied a bow on itself. Yeah, your vulva's right there. That's right. It's all part of it. It's tied a bow on itself. Yeah, definitely. Did you find a point, because I grew up in a very Christian, Catholic household as well, did you kind of have a point where you saw outside of what you had grown up in or distanced yourself from that?

It was a radical moment actually because, like I said, when we went to church, I went to the school that was affiliated with the church. I really believed that God knew everything that I did, everything that I thought. And I guess there was probably maybe not as much of the guilt and shame as the Catholic thing. It's a whole thing. It's a whole thing.

It's a whole thing, yeah. But also, I mean, the good side was I really understood gratitude and feeling protected and guided, if you like. And so those are things that I've held onto in a pretty non-God-like way, but those are the things that I've held onto in a pretty non-God-like way, but those are the things that I've, you know, really wanted to keep and foster in being a mother and having a family myself. But, you know, I look back and I think that when you look

at the sort of born-again movement in the 80s mostly, you know, you think, well, it was largely people like my parents who'd probably just gone a bit too wild in the 70s and then been like right that's it we're gonna get really straight yeah just rein it all back in rein it all back in and do a complete 180 and so with the same fervor that they were out doing the other things they then applied that to you know charismatic religion and so it was just a whole thing that, you know, had its course. And so when I was about 10, my mum and my stepdad separated and at that time we left the church that we were at, which was, you know,

it wasn't too crazy but they were speaking in tongues and laying of hands. That's pretty crazy. Well, not crazy but just having fun. Yeah, I mean it wasn't the crazy end of the crazy but it was yeah certainly like I remember when my mum I was eight and my mum had my little brother and she got pneumonia and she was just really unwell and she had three kids and you know she just had a baby and it's a full-on time it's a full-on time and I remember she was being prayed for by the elders at the church and they were doing the laying of hands and there was some sort of conversation around, you know, well, this is not necessarily a punishment,

but it's, this is because of something that's happened or something that you've done. And I remember at eight, just thinking, yeah, just back up. That is my mom you're talking about. And I'm pretty sure she's sick and, you know, she just needs some medicine and get your hands off her, you know. So and then when I was 10 and we left the church, it was like, I don't know, I remember my mum bought a stereo. She bought that Tracy Chapman album, you know, She's got her ticket, I think she's going to use it. She's going to fly away. She bought red lipstick and I just remember thinking oh my god my

mum has just gone wild like who is this woman but then you know as the year sort of went on I realized actually that's who she'd been all the time but she'd been quite sort of repressed holding it holding it back yeah that's right and to see her sort of go through that unveiling you know when I was on the precipice of you know entering into I guess early womanhood I think was was good you know because I saw that you can you can be this and you can do that and think that and have that kind of life or you can just say actually no sorry that I've had enough of that now and I'm just gonna try this on so yeah do my own thing sing Tracy Chapman with red lipstick with red lipstick yeah I was just like wow that's so interesting because

it's sort of that whole idea of becoming a woman at the same time as watching your mum reclaim her spirit and heart, I guess, in a way. It must be hugely powerful to see. Do you think that a part of it too was rage for you or for her? Rage. Rage against or a different – I guess I say rage because I've had a lot of rage recently just because about – What day are you on? Just by the by.

I meant to ask you that at the start. No, I mean I would be on day like 11. Okay, cool. Me too. Oh, really? Yeah. Ah, sicked out. So I'm in that like antsy, like I've got so many things to do. I'm like, yeah, yeah. That's what I'm like. So yeah, probably hence a bit of the rage. Um, I, I guess I say rage because I just, at the moment feel like there's this huge feminine energy coming back. I grew up in a really Catholic household where sex was not about anything other than procreation. And marriage.

And marriage. And so very deeply held beliefs about it. And my parents were sex educators themselves. No. Yep. Wow. And also my mum is a billings method teacher so she's very into fertility very aware of that but as a woman and having sexuality is something that is

like so visually part of your self-expression as well was not a narrative that was ever I ever grew up with and I sometimes think that women are still kind of meant to fit into certain boxes. As you're saying this, I'm like, I'm gripping onto the microphone. I'm like, I've just been talking about rage as well because I feel like, you know, just to circle back a little bit with this show, when I wrote it I sort of, I touched on how, you know, just to circle back a little bit with this show, when I wrote it, I sort of, I touched on how, you know, we're essentially living in a man's world still. That's why we're so addicted to being linear and things have to be the same every day. Otherwise, you know,

Ooh, it's crazy and out of control. And, and, but I didn't really go into it too much because I primarily just felt like, freak, I've got an hour. I don't have time to get into that. If I start peeling back the lid on that little bit of, I'm going to be here all night and no one's going to get the good stuff. And really, I just want people to know they can use their cycle. It's meant to be something that you can feel connected to, to use as a bit of a compass, the way that it ebbs and flows and the hormonal changes and the phases, and I can get to that in a minute. But now I just feel like, you know, I've been doing this show for three years.

It's my greatest period ever. My greatest period ever. And, you know, the more that I do it and the more people that I speak to and the more sort of menstrual heavyweights that I speak to all over the world, just the most incredible people, the madder I get because I just feel like the inequality that so many women face in terms of their access to information and just expression and autonomy over their bodies, it's still so maddening. And I've come to realize that, you know, this isn't going to be fixed in my lifetime,

which is a really full-on thing to think and say out loud. And so it's made me, I guess, emboldened because I just think if I sit here in my little cubbyhole, you know, waiting until I get everything perfect before I say something or do something or get it right, then we just don't have time for that anymore. And, you know, rage is a really interesting emotion because obviously, you know, if you don't find a way to channel that, it can burn you up. Yeah, it's really self-destructive. It's like Liz Gilbert talks about your brain can be like a labrador and if you don't walk it and feed it and exercise it you know all

those things it can just piss on your carpet and chop your furniture and yeah and your my mind i think or anyone's mind is like that if you let rage just go without putting it somewhere. Yeah. Do you have somewhere or an idea of where you want to channel that rage? So glad that you've asked me that because I – so the applications to submit, you know, a Fringe show in Perth are about to close. In fact, they probably have officially closed. I'll work around that. And, you know, I was really like, oh, God, am I going to do this show again,

like the fourth year in a row? And I know there are people who still are like, you know, I haven't seen it. I want to go and see it. But I'm just feeling like I need to move this conversation along because I know it has moved along and I really want to speak to that. And, yeah, so I've just been really brainstorming, particularly this week. And I got up this morning at about 6.30 and just had this, you know,

just writing on my iPhone with the screen turned down, tapping. Because it's week two, mate, and you've got to get all the stuff done. That's right. Hello. That's right. And you've got to – and I think, you know, when you – you know, so you're hello that's right and you've got it you've and I think you know when you you know so you're talking about week two after you've had the period and I feel like I'm really good at having a period I'm really good at self-care I'm really good at um you know

eating nicely and you know just sort of resting and having long baths and screening my calls for people that I just know I can't deal with at that moment and just scaffolding a bit of rubber room around the life that has to happen so that I can do it with a bit more ease and flow. But then, you know, when I come into that week too, you know, the time to do that sort of week of power where I always imagine, you know, like a little bird who's getting ready to lay the egg essentially. And, you know, she doesn't have time to be, you know, hanging out with their friends and gossiping. It's like, I'm looking for the

perfect twig. I need to get my nest right. Just get out of my way. I've got shit to do and you know yeah and that that is a real drive and and you know what makes me most sad and furious about the way menstruation is treated is that that whole rhetoric of it's just my hormones it's just my hormones minimize minimize it's not a real feeling. I'm not qualified. The imposter syndrome. All of that shit is so wrapped up in that disconnect between what, and I'm patting my belly here, that disconnect between who we are and how we feel and then how we are in the world. And obviously, you know, when you're premenstrual in the fourth week, we all know what that feels like, that fizzy kind of. Yeah, because you're so close to the surface.

That's right. Everything is like itchy almost. Yes. Because you feel everything so intently, which is also, I guess, I want to talk and ask you to kind of talk us through each week actually. Yeah. Because I think it's such an important tool and so much information that people still don't have.

And I often talk to my friends about it or women and I see their faces go, what? What? And then they ask me questions and suddenly this whole part of their brain starts to open up and they start to go, oh, I'm not crazy. And it only starts there and then there's so much more. Because I think as women we're living, as you know, that hot and it only starts there and then there's so much more because I think as women, we're living, as you said, in this linear culture. And I had a thought after I

watched your show and I just sat in my car and cried because it's such a funny, lighthearted, beautiful show. Like it's brilliant, but I watched it and I went by myself because I couldn't get anyone to come with me. And afterwards I just sat in the car and I thought, oh, my God, we are the seasons. It's going to sound slow. We are the seasons. We're the world. Yeah, but we fucking are.

That is the truth. Like internally our bodies are functioning in the same way that the world is. The world is not linear. The world is not one way all the time fitting into a tiny rectangular box and always the same. We're not. It's seasonal.

Everything changes and it's cyclical so we can create life and life continues and all the energy goes through. And if we lived like that, God, how much better would the world be? We wouldn't be in the climate crisis. Like I could have fallen down a rabbit hole. But that's what I felt when I watched the show. It's not that much of a rabbit hole. What we do to women, we do to the earth.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And that whole, you know, exploitation and just it is exploitation. It's, you know, this continual taking with no respect or reverence for the time to restore. And, you know, you think the world actually needs to have a good period, you know, to just put a hot water bottle on and some chamomile tea

and turn everything down and to just actually rest. Yeah, completely and be cherished and have that reverence so and i know you must talk about all the time but for people who don't know what we're talking about yeah let's should we do a 101 let's do a 101 what do you mean okay what is your show about all right so basically it's based on this idea that you know contrary to what we learn in school where we're just told that, you know, you have a period now, you are a woman, you can make a baby and here's how you manage it. End of story. Good luck. Have a nice life.

And so that is such a small part of what is actually going on. It's so reductive it treats the whole process as though it's just a hygiene management situation that needs to be you know dealt with discreetly because heaven forbid that someone may know you're actually menstruating or you know immediately all this shame and secrecy and yeah that's right stuff around it that's right. And that gets embodied at some level in all of us. And, you know, it also is reductive because it means that we only think about the menstrual cycle in terms of fertility and your ability to make a baby or not make a baby.

And it's so much more than that. And, you know, because as we've said, we live in this world that really rewards and values linear consistency. Any deviation from that is very, it's sort of treated with, you know. Yeah, suspicion. Suspicion or alarm or, you know, at worst it's really kind of demonised and, you know, all those words back in history of women being hysterical. Yeah, that word comes from the word hysterectomy, right,

where women were hysterical so they just removed their uterus. That's right. And, I mean, that goes back to, you know, ancient Latin, you know, that whole idea of women being, yeah, just sort of unreliable and, you know, I mean, God. Chaos. You could get into a hideous wormhole. I mean Freud has a lot to answer for but let's just not even go there. It's just too depressing and, you know, I'll crush my cup in my hand.

And that's a danger, isn't it, because then you start to become this shrieky, raged field kind of and it's a person that is not. Do you know what? I'm going to go there. I just feel like I'm, I can't as an educator and as a performer and someone who has explored this for so long, I can't keep preaching the goodness and light without just actually saying, hang on a second, there is an absolute butt ton of stuff underneath this that if we don't look at, I don't know that we are going to get to the peace and light. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah. We need to kind of, it's that thing of needing to look back and, you know, to be able to move forward to where you want to go. But like you say, you know, you can sort of get stuck in that. And you've asked me to get to the synopsis of the cycle and I'm still raging. I know. I should have waited for the right question. To subside. It's weak to my body, rush too far. No, cycle and I'm still raging. I know. I should have waited for the right question. To subside.

We took a bloody rush too far. No, no, I'm in it. I am literally just really exploring that at the moment because it's got a place. And anyway, I can feel myself just starting to go on the rant again. So I'll just take a breath. There is and I guess this is the problem, right, that because it's so personal and also that whole idea of like I grew

up with an idea that feminism and feminists were a bit like out there and a bit too much and a bit over the top and, you know, and I still face, you still face that even now that feminists are women that obviously don't care about their appearance or blah, blah, blah, all this extra lays, angry, intense. Yeah, exactly, which is so far from what I am, what you are, what most women are. It's not about man-hating at all.

We're just different creatures. And also, you know, I mean, obviously it's fundamentally based on women having equal rights in all spheres of their life and freedom from any kind of fear and, you know, being able to live a fully lived, expressed life. But also it means that men are not bound by the constraints of what it means to be a man and that they, and, you know, getting back to what we were alluding to before about the whole earth being complete catastrophe it's because we've all been you know molded into

this hyper masculine way of being that is actually pretty shit for men as well and yeah you know if if men you know and it's like what you said before about words sort of losing their power and becoming cheesy, but if men are able to get in touch with their feminine side, you know, we're going to just be so much more balanced. And they want that. They need that to talk about their feelings and be connected and, you know, have deep emotional connections and relationships and, you know, to not be so just.

Scared of showing emotion or hyper aggressive because they feel like they have to be. And I've seen that my husband and I co-parent our son from home. We work from home together and it just, it kind of happened that way. I've always had, my dad was really involved in the parenting too, but because James and I are both home full time, I suddenly see he is just if not better a parent than I am. He's so involved in our son's life, but he's there for every moment. So he sees how hard, when it's hard, it's hard, when the beautiful stuff and that means that we share everything.

We share the housework. We share the mental load. Like he books stuff. He organises stuff. He understands when, you know, when you say the mental load to some men or people or women as well. Then you have the mental load of explaining the mental load. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly because really the mental load is just that women particularly tend to carry all of the family admin and all the extra stuff as well as doing all the things they need to do. And the emotional sort of tending, you know, just carrying. Checking, checking everybody. And I think because he's there, he sees all of that and then values it. And it's meant that he is such a grounded person as well because he's like, and he's got mates now who are having to go straight back to work and kind

of being ripped away from their newborn and being like, well, now I'm spending an hour commuting into the city to work eight hours in this job that I don't really love and then an hour back home and I've missed seeing my wife and child and I'm missing these moments and having to fit into these boxes. And, yeah, we could just go down this whole thing. It is a societal thing. And I guess that's why I want to bring it back to just that quick 101 of the cycle because I think if you don't understand

that, you don't understand what we're even going towards. Do you know what I mean? So if you were going to talk about us as being seasonal, like women being seasonal, which is what your show's about, what are those seasons? What are we doing? Yeah, so it's based on the idea that you know when you have a menstrual cycle it's not a dichotomous you have a period you don't have a period and there are four phases and like you say they are just like the seasons and just like seasons they have their own strengths and benefits

and you know we wouldn't begrudge winter for doing what it needs to do because it's winter and it's time to rest and, you know, prepare for the upcoming season. And so basically we look at the cycle, you know, we say 28 days or 31 days or however many days your cycle is. It's all kind of in the realm of normal if that's normal for you. And day one is the day that you start bleeding. And so your first phase is obviously menstruation. If you want to link that to the seasons, then you can call it winter. I call it time to dream because, you know, hormonally everything's pretty well flatlined

and it's that time to just pause. It's the time to stop before you start and to really just, you know, return to center, return to, you know, to what is the deepest part of yourself. And, you know, it's like your body really just puts you down in a good way to just stop and smell the metaphorical roses, as it were. So, you know, time to really rest, to nurture yourself, a time to sort of, you know, you're getting ready to start again. You're getting ready to start this whole month again. And I love the idea that every time you have a cycle,

you basically get to reinvent yourself. You basically get to say, okay, what is it that this month I really want to grow and give life to next? So just that real deep dreaming. And so time to dream, time to bleed. It's your winter. Do you swear on your podcast? Okay. Zero fucks. Yeah. And then as you know, your period continues and you've done all that self-care and going slowly and doing what you need to do, your estrogen starts to creep up and then it's your spring or your time to do. And that's like I was saying before about the bird,

just get out of my way. I've got shit to do. Things are happening. We've got fucks for days. There's so many. They're all over the place. They're all over the shop. They're all over the shop. And so you really want to channel them because, you know,

just getting back to the rage thing, I think for a lot of people it's like if you don't have – if you have a bit of sort of, oh, no, that idea is a bit too big for me. Oh, no, that's a bit too fantastic. Yeah. I think that if you don't listen to whatever that thing is, you know, as in just make the thing or do the whatever, if you don't listen to whatever that thing is, you know, as in just make the thing or do the whatever, if you don't listen to that then, that is like your most powerful superwoman self coming

to you in all of her glory with, you know, backlit and big hair and a silver platter and saying, here, Claire, here is your quest. And you saying, oh, no, no, no. Not really. Not really. I can't put that on. It doesn't, I wouldn't wear that. And then can you imagine how she would feel, that Athena warrior goddess

who comes to you with this absolute quest and you've rejected that and she's like, oh, how dare you. And I reckon a lot of frustration because before I sang, before I had a baby, I kind of knew I had something big in me but I just didn't know what it was and I struggled with that and I did feel that frustration of like and and it's almost like you know imagine spring and then you don't plant anything yeah and then you come to summer and you're like where's my fruit salad and where's my flower garden where's my party and it's like

you actually feel a bit of a mourning because you haven't got to really celebrate the most powerful, amazing, kick-ass parts of yourself. So, yeah, spring, time to do, fucks for days, getting ready to ovulate, that is the time to back yourself. And it's probably the most masculine part of the cycle where you're really just building up to something big and fantastic and you need to lay the plans down, get the things happening, write the lists, tick the boxes, start exercising, just build your fire basically. And so we're now at about, you know, day 14, if you were on a

28 day cycle. So people think that you ovulate at day 14, no matter how long your cycle is, but it's a really important distinction to make that you ovulate about 14 days before your period comes which your mum would be you know well aware of yeah so if you've got a 30-day cycle you'll probably ovulate at day 16 which is what I do so that do phase with the fucks for days getting ready to ovulate that's where the rubber room is in the cycle. That's the longest phase that we have. Thank God. Yeah, exactly, right? Once estrogen peaks, you also have a little shot of testosterone

to really like just push that egg out into the world and then boom, that is like you're into summer, you're into the most, you know, fantastic kind of expressive, emotionally generous, abundant time. And you're still, you know, riding high from the superhuman strength of the do phase, but you've, you've, you just, the edges have softened a little bit and you've got, I mean, I find when I'm in the do phase, like now, if Richard, my husband's sort of, you know, really comes to me for some emotional support and you know wants to talk about something I'm looking at my car yeah yep okay great how'd

that make you feel okay all right I've got a yep I'm just I don't have it in me I'm just like I've got things to do yeah and I'm always like I haven't mowed the lawn yet yeah well like I've really I've scheduled in three appointments plus I'm also writing this thing and I've done this list and I've got to tick it all off if I don't tick it off and you get in my way I mean I know your emotions are important and because that's part of my thing yeah for a couple of days yeah exactly or I just treat like like our relationship like it's one of the things on my list like tell me how you're feeling yep all right you're not feeling good this is what I would do okay we're done that's 10 minutes all right i gotta go yeah exactly exactly i know it's important

but i've got other stuff mate i've got to put on my red sparkly sequin cape and come up with all these like crazy hair rain ideas exactly so you know and then you ovulate and it sort of softens a little bit and then you know you you've got more, I mean, I call that, you know, the fuck yes phase because you're just, you know, people are like, oh, do you want to do this project? Do you want to, you know, collaborate on this and that? And there's just this world of possibility that everything kind of seems like it's all opening up and, you know, you've provided, I feel, that you've really given your own secret special dream a good run?

Then you've got more in the tank to give to others, you know. But I've found, yeah, if I don't really honour that thing that I'm trying to do for myself that's my kind of, you know, path, then I don't feel as generous in week three at ovulation because I'm sort of still trying to make up for that other thing, you know. Yeah. But, yeah, summer, fuck yes, expressive, ovulation, and that is sort of I guess where people feel they have to be all the time. And so I think our summer fuck yes, you know, goddess maiden gets

pretty exhausted because that is where we just feel like we have to be all the time everything to everybody constantly pumping out muffins and children and ideas and emotional availability and you know it's bullshit it's like yes that is a part of us and it's a really important part of us she's got a time and place too and and um and you know the problem lies because for people who don't have sort of um i know this is a excruciatingly long-winded version of the uh of the synopsis but for people who um maybe aren't as in tune with their cycle they know they're having a, then they know things pick up and then it's kind of like, oh, yeah, this is the real me. And now look at me go and this sense of fullness and expansion

and just like I am just amazing, you know, really kind of kicks off. And then after, you know, the ovulation hormones start to sort of wear off because we've got progesterone. Estrogen. It's all on. It's an absolute party. And then once it starts to come down, you know, and we're moving into being premenstrual, that's when it can feel like the rug just gets completely pulled out from underneath you.

And it can be quite devastating because you just think, oh my God, but last week I was nailing it and I was getting on with Karen, you know, and I was on top of everything and now I just, what's going on? You know, and I must be crazy and I'm overreacting and it's just my hormones and rah, rah, rah, rah. And the gift that comes with being premenstrual is really just overlooked. And, you know, if you think about the season analogy, that's autumn where, you know, you're enjoying the last of the warmth. You're noticing the beautiful, vivid red and orange, yellow leaves falling to the ground about to, you know, die. You're gathering

the last of the nuts and the fruit, you know, for the cold times ahead and you're really taking stock. And Christiane Northrup, who wrote Woman's Bodies, Woman's Wisdom, you know, she talks about the veil being lifted when you're premenstrual and it's where you really, your rose-tinted glasses that you had on, you know, around ovulation, they are just out the window. And now it's like you almost had poo tinted glasses on because you're just like, that's not good enough. Well, that's wrong. And I'm sick of that. And I'm sick of that. And the thing is, if you don't sort of treat that in context, then it can be really overwhelming. And if you kind of, you know, I call it,

you know, these truth bombs, if you kind of, you know, I call it, you know, these truth bombs. If you kind of just throw those around willy-nilly, then yeah, people are going to lose an eye, you know. But there is real truth in the truth bombs. And if you write them down and learn to trust them, and then I call it running it through the dream filter, you then, you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, you know. I mean, sometimes you have to and sometimes that's okay. And sometimes I think, you know, when you're premenstrual, if something happens to you, then that is a really good time

to stick up for yourself and to really tap into that protector, you know, who says, actually, hang on a minute. Claire will not be putting up with this crap today. Not today. And it can be a really empowering thing to get in touch with that part of yourself at that moment when you need it. But if it's just sort of general annoyance at just life that builds up over the course of the month, then, yeah, write all that stuff down

and then reflect over it during your period and that's when you get the real gold because that's when you're in the dream phase and now we've done a whole loop, you see. Yeah. And so you run all that through your dream filter and it's like, okay, do I need to have a talk with Karen? You know, like is there something really going on here or did I maybe just not get enough exercise that week? Or did I just

take on a bit too much crap? And, you know, there's a really beautiful idea that when you're premenstrual, you're actually getting the bill. I wish I could remember who said this. It might have been in the Optimized Woman or it might have been in Wild Power. When you're premenstrual, you're getting the check. You're getting the bill for the month that you've had. So, okay, Claire, I see that you've had four late nights, you've had three hangovers, you put up with that toxic person, you went to McDonald's six times, you didn't listen to yourself when really you had some powerful intuition here, here and here, that's going to cost you this and then that's how you feel when you're premenstrual and it all kind of literally comes out in the wash

and you have to kind of look at that right up close and just sort of work your way through it ready to start again and that is you know the cycle and it's this it's this pretty amazing thing to just you know tap into you know to to really look at all the parts of yourself and to meet them every month to kind of go a little deeper and get to know them all and give them a chance you know like Liz Gilbert says to run off the chain and get a good exercise yeah yeah I know you mean to like exercise your your brain out there I think you touched on something then which I think is really true that you have to look after yourself and your and to do that you need to exercise and eat well and all of those things because otherwise things become

impossible and untenable in the house that your brain lives in do you ever get exhausted by the fact that we do this every month or do you love it? Yeah, I really love it. I really look to it as a bit of a linchpin. It's like, you know, and I use it to diarise, you know, so I sort of know what's coming, you know, and I know that if it's in my week one dream period phase, then I won't book seven things, you know, in one day. And I know that if it's in my week one dream period phase,

then I won't book seven things, you know, in one day. I'll just, you know, and I'll make sure that I have time to meditate or have a nap or a long bath, you know. I put my phone on airplane mode or I'll do different things. So I feel like it's just such a perfect way to be reminded of self-care really you know and it's like in week two when we're at where we're at now I know that if I if I kind of fizzle through that energy without getting something down on paper or getting something happening concrete that that you can burn yourself out, actually. You can, if you, you know, if you sort of don't tend that fire well,

then you can, you know, you can get burnt. You really can. And so I think like it or lump it, really, we've been born with this. It's the way we are. Understanding yourself more because that's why we're here at the end of the day right to try and understand ourselves and and if we can be connected into who we are then the gifts that we can give to other people are so much richer and fuller and you can put that red sequin cape on in your week too and be out there and

live that impossible thing that you want to do. And then know that there's a time to put it down and that it will come again, you know. And I think like what we were talking about off mic before about, you know, fertility and this idea that, you know, we aren't finite sources of infinite power that, I've just contradicted myself, haven't I we are finite you know yes exactly and and that every month you get you get a little a little taste of these four different parts of yourself and you know ultimately that that will come to an end you know we won't have that reminder that cycle of of how to be connected to ourselves. And there's a beautiful Native American Indian quote that says, you know, at her first bleeding, a woman meets her power.

In her bleeding years, she practices her power. And then at menopause, she becomes it. Wow. That's so huge. Isn't it? And so the idea is that, you you know from 12 or whatever it is until you stop menstruating every month you get to find out more about your dreamy soft gentle self you get to find out more about your powerful kick-ass passionate driven hardcore self you get to find out more about your

sweet you know sensual expressive playful celebratory joyful self you get to find out more about your sweet, you know, sensual, expressive, playful, celebratory, joyful self. You get to find out more about your, you know, your darkest, deepest, you know, angsty, passionate, driven, you know, PMS self. And then by the time, you know, you've done all of these revolutions of yourself, all of these cycles, you get to 50 or 55 or whatever it is and your body says, okay, you got that? Because now you don't need that to remind you, you have become that and now you don't, you know, you're unencumbered from the reproductive responsibility of being, you know, potentially fertile and then you go into the next part of your life, you know, potentially fertile

and then you go into the next part of your life, you know, the crone years or the wise woman and you've got all that in you, you know, and then that's, yeah. Yeah, that's life. That's life, mate. We've solved it. Yeah. Let's turn the mics off.

We're done. Get in the box. It's a wonderful way of thinking about it because I do think we live in a culture that sometimes thinks about ageing as a terrible thing and we're trying as best we can as women. There's all this messaging out there that, you know, don't age, don't look your age. Be six forever.

Yeah, exactly, and speak like you're like a younger person and be kind of insecure about yourself and seeing women as they age and if women are quite confident and out there as they age too, they can be then talked about quite negatively as well. How do you feel about ageing? Yeah, I'm 39 next week and I really feel so sad that menopause has been so shit-canned for so long. And I guess part of the reason why I'm doing this is because I just don't want that.

I'm just not having it. I just don't. I reject that it's all shit, you know, when you get older. And there are so many great role models and so many amazing women who are completely disproving that and like who well i mean christianne northrup for one she's written some amazing stuff around menopause um lara bryden who wrote the period repair manual is writing a book about perimenopause alexander popin shi Hugo-Wurlitzer, who wrote Wild Power, are writing a book about menopause currently. And there's just so much going on around creating a different narrative

and a different story. And, you know, something that I really love is that story around the orca whales. And so they are one of the only other creatures that experience menopause. I didn't know that. Yeah. Wow. And still have quite a long life after their fertile years. And so there's what's called the grandmother effect because without the grandmother orcas,

the young males in particular really suffer. So the grandmothers are the ones who say well come down this channel and this is where the water is better and this is where the food is and don't go there there's the baddies and here it's nice and warm and they have they have um what's called they are the repository of the ecological wisdom and it is in their advantage you know as a as a species to be passing on that ecological wisdom as opposed to just continually pumping out you know kids kids that's right and so this idea that actually you know that is that is their value is is their wisdom and and they stay alive for so much longer not to keep having babies but to pass on that wisdom,

without which the young males in particular, they die earlier. They actually die earlier. And, you know, there is such a beautiful synergy with that, with women. I think that, you know, we really need our elders now more than ever. We need our elders. We need to be minded. We need to be shown the way really and so I really am looking forward to that journey and to yeah taking my place as an older

woman and you know one day I mean older woman what does that even mean I don't know women that woman that has lived many more years yes yeah but But I guess that it's such a refreshing thing to hear because I think often with all of the social media stuff we can get really caught up in the idea of having to stay eternally young. Well, and it's being stuck in one place which is so contrary to, you know, life. Yes, and the planet and, you know, all of that stuff. That's right. And it's like what I was saying contrary to you know life yeah and the planet and that's right all of that and it's like what i was saying with you know when you don't really use your your spring phase your do phase your pre-ovulatory phase you know then when you come to summer you you know because it

it's cyclical right and so and something that um they talk about in wild power a lot is if you're having a sort of issue with one part of your cycle look to the phase before that for the answer in fixing that part so if you're getting to your do phase and you're like actually i don't i have stuff all energy i don't feel like conquering the world i feel exhausted i feel spent i feel unmotivated i feel flat it's like well okay go back to your to your dream phase to winter how did you love yourself when you had your period did you stop and have a rest did you get to bed a little bit earlier did you spend too much of yourself on something that actually was emotionally energetically expensive that you couldn't really afford you know did you rock up to spring with

nothing you know yeah and so this idea of needing to be eternally, you know, 15 and youthful and without wrinkles or any evidence of having smiled once in your life is so indicative of this arrested development in that girl phase. And I think, you know, I hope that in living as fully as I can in the phase that I am in when I am in it, that when I get to 50, I will say, good, I want to be 50. I want to stop doing those things and spending energy in that way. I'm ready to spend it in this way because I've done that

and I have fully been in that moment in that time doing what I was meant to be doing and I think that for so long, you know, we've been denied our place in society. We've been denied positions of power. We've been denied autonomy and the responsibility that we naturally are meant to have and execute, you know, over our domains and environments and the world and the care, you know, that we've been imbued with having we haven't been able to do. So we're kind of stuck in this infantile sort of, yeah, girl phase that we're meant to just be in forever.

We never get to fully develop and step into that feminine power and role. And to me there's a link between that sort of neutering of our power and then having to stay as though we're we're eternally young forever you know yeah absolutely absolutely because because i do i think that until we can have equal amounts of men and women in positions of power to make decisions for our planet and our country and our society because I grew up often feeling like I didn't fit like the way that I was was too loud or too spiky or too I don't know emotional which you hear a lot which isn't just about being like too loud or crying all the time or something. It's about really having this deep

seated feeling like my whole being is not fitting in with the way that other people or the culture is expecting me to be, but yet feeling like when you're in the environment or in the natural world that you feel like you belong there. But then there's this huge disconnect between the way that we live culturally in society in a modern way of living and then the way that we feel when we're with the earth and and the seasons and I I just for a long long time I was trying to figure out why it is that I would feel that kind of itchy all the time or annoyed or too much or strange. And I think it is really that and not that men can't feel that too, but I think women are so deeply connected into the way

that the world moves and is and that if we are living disconnected from that and so you can't help but feel kind of too much or too big or the things that you say are too soft or something. Because you're literally a square peg in a round hole. Literally. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And you can kind of see the way we could be and the powers that be

at the moment, you know, most of the wealth in the world is owned by men. The way that our whole power structures are set up are run by men that don't see the value of living more holistically. And I feel like it's changing but, yeah, I don't know if it will be fast enough. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. I mean even this idea that, you know, some countries are sort of playing with the idea that maybe working, you know, five days a week,

10 hours a day actually isn't that productive. And perhaps we do work a four-day week and have a three-day weekend. And maybe that is not only makes you feel better, but actually more productive. Yes. Actually more productive. Yes. That we're all sort of playing this role of being super busy and super productive and super efficient and just go, go, go, go, go, go, go. And actually we're just running around like headless chicken, you know.

Yeah, just all emailing each other back all the time with like more emails saying how busy we are for like for what. And that's how I feel, I mean, running the company that we do, I get so much done some days, particularly in my week two, and then other days not so much done. And I've discovered that I still am running a job and getting paid and creating a business and doing all the things I need to do but understanding my cycle and the way that I work means that I am more efficient

and I don't think people always think, oh, you work really hard because you work for yourself. Well, yes, I do but I don't think I can get done in two hours what I need to get done and then have the day to do other things swing while you're winning yeah and then but then I look at friends who work for like eight hours a day and they're like oh yeah but we had a long lunch here and then I sat and read some emails and I looked at Facebook and then I talked to Jared by the water cooler and I did this and I did you know and how much of that day is travel time and BS stuff.

So anyway, we could talk about this for so long. Oh, my gosh. A couple of other things I wanted to ask you before we finish. One was obviously the rain here is so beautiful. I heard the rain coming on. It's so lovely. This is a bit of a personal question. I had a miscarriage maybe two years ago now and was completely shocked

and floored by what the experience was like. For you, I know you said you've had two miscarriages. What has that taught you about yourself and your body? Yeah. So they were both relative, like, you know, six weeks and five weeks. So really early, which, you know, a lot of people will say and sort of minimise. But it's obviously, you know, it's an experience.

I mean, it's part of the cycle. It really, really is. And I was really surprised to have the first one, you know, devastated really because I wanted to get pregnant. And it was the first time that I guess I just didn't know what was going on. It was a completely foreign experience. It was really painful. I mean, the doctor had said, yes, you're having a miscarriage, go home.

You know, it might, you might have a bit of pain, but it was full on. It was like, you know, like labor contractions and yeah, just the grief was just insurmountable, you know, at the time. And, and then what no one tells you is that you just keep on bleeding, right? So, you know, at the time. And, um, and then what no one tells you is that you just keep on bleeding. Right. So, you know, after sort of three days I thought, okay, well, I mean, it just was, you know, so tiny and it wasn't meant to be. And maybe there was some anomaly and it's better this way. And you tell yourself all of the things and I mentally was sort of like, okay, all right, hurry up, hurry up, ready to move on and start trying and get over it and whatever. And then you keep bleeding and then you keep bleeding and then you keep bleeding. And then I had, I think it was called a hemorrhagic

cyst on my ovary. And it was just like, just one thing after the other. And I think I was bleeding for about 42 days or something. But I remember thinking, you know, this is so common though, you know, one in four pregnancies. Is it one in four pregnancies or one in four women? One in four. Is it the same thing? I don't know.

I know it's one in four. I think it's one in four pregnancies. Yeah. And so it actually made me feel this deep connection and love for all of the other women who have this and have had this and will have this and that it's just another part of what we do really and how our bodies are and that there was a real wisdom in just surrendering, you know,

to what had to happen. And, yeah, and, you know, I don't have particularly painful periods and it was a real reminder for just I thought like far out, this must be what it's like for some endometriosis sufferers who are just like, Lucy, will you shut the fuck up with your period power because it actually is awful and sucks and this is what we deal with every month it just made me it made me just feel i don't know i guess tenderized is probably not a very nice choice of words but it did it made me really just feel yeah so much for just the female experience, you know, and what that means.

Yeah, it's a thing that until it happens to you, you think is not – you don't really think about or think is common. Yeah, and I just sort of thought, oh, that won't happen to me because, you know, my mum's had six kids and I'm sure I'll be super fertile and it will all just be a dream run and, you know, so it was a real shock. And then when I had another one, I was like, oh, bummer. But it wasn't as bad as the first one because I sort of knew what to expect. I knew what I was going to feel physically and I cleared the decks

and, you know, got hot water bottles and just really made a little nest for myself in my bed and, you know, got hot water bottles and just really made a little nest for myself in my bed and, you know, got some good people around me and just, and then just, yeah, went through the motions, you know. Yeah. I guess. Felt the feelings. Yes. It's that whole thing, isn't it, about having gone through something and there's so much that you gain in perspective and understanding. So then when you do it again again i'm thinking about having like kids as well like the first time you go through labor as opposed to maybe the fourth time you go through labor and what you learn i was really surprised about it too that it was like labor yeah yeah

which obviously makes sense but yeah just yeah it was such a visceral experience and we just don't talk about it no in that way sometimes we say well it happens to one in four and we don't tell anyone for 12 weeks because it might happen but well and even that it's bullshit because it's like you know you're feeling sick you can't tell anybody because you know what if you don't you know it doesn't continue and then you know if you do have a miscarriage you know you've got to go and get scans and you've got to do all of these things and you've got to take time out and make excuses to work and it's this whole life that that you then deny as well you know and it's like for people that are even saying trying to get pregnant it kind of rankles me because I imagine

this sort of sweating like it's like it's time it's not really sexy no but even that it's time. It's not really sexy. But even that, it's like just, you know, that time between ovulation and then your period coming where you're like, well, am I pregnant? Am I premenstrual? That, you know, where you're just in that space of kind of waiting and not knowing and, yeah, how many women who are sort of between, you know, 25 to 45 are in that holding pen that can't say anything because they don't want to jinx it and between, you know, 25 to 45 are in that holding pen that can't say anything because they don't want to jinx it and they, do you know?

Yes. Yeah, and feel like they can't talk to people about it. Yeah, exactly. Like we had told everybody that I was pregnant because I'm just that sort of person. I feel like if I'm holding something and trying to be secretive, I feel like I can't talk to it. I just don't feel like myself.

I have to get it out. But when it happened to me, it meant that then because people knew, I could just tell them. And some people obviously maybe didn't want to know, but I told them anyway. And in the end, it was this beautiful lot of support because people then understand and see what you're going through and you don't feel like you're suffering away in silence and there's a grief that still comes. I still grieve.

Yeah. I think. Do you still carry that? Totally. I mean I had, you know, one of my best friends was pregnant at the same time and we were imagining going to school together and, you know, I had my first child when I was 25 and no one was having kids back then. So, you know, I remember going to mother's group and just feeling like,

oh, my God, who are these people? Like I didn't really find a group of women. So I have this sort of fantasy that this time, you know, I'll have the village and we'll be doing batch cooking and, you know, complaining about our cracked nipples together and rah, rah, rah. And now her little boy, you know, he's six months old. I'm going to celebrate his six-month birthday on Monday and give him his first lamb chop, you know.

And it's like it's this bittersweet thing, you know, that I would have had a little, you know. Little person. Little person. But it's I think that is, you know, getting back to the cycle every month we we let go you know you you let go you build up life again you let go you build up life again we constantly it's like the moon you you're constantly in this state of you know um expanding and then contracting and and and we just have to get good at that because that's

that's our life's work really is to just be somewhere in that cycle and you know just go with the ebb and flow and and i guess yeah that's part of of of of learning to let go you know because we've had all that practice so so yeah when you i i feel like I was able to use that to to help me to help me through that and you know even in trying to get pregnant now I met a woman well she wrote to me after coming to the show a couple of years ago and she said that she'd been trying to get pregnant and doing IVF and going through the whole thing and just really really wanted to get pregnant and it'd been a long long long time. And she said, you know, every time I got my period, I was angry. I was sad. I would cry. I felt so devastated and

let down by my body and I hated it and I felt just betrayed. But she said, but now I've got this other way of looking at it. Oh, wow. And I can see that even if I'm not making a baby that month I'm capable of creating all kinds of life and I remember she told me that and I'd had it I felt particularly crap show that night but I just it was really it really hit me the enormity of what she'd experienced and how powerful that was. And then when I had a miscarriage, I really understood that. And now even I'm still trying to get pregnant and I get my period and it's like, oh, well, but there's my friend. There's my little, that's my friend, you know, coming to just visit me again and time to get out the hot water bottles and, you know,

put my feet up and do some dreaming and here I go again. Yeah, because you've done it. So I've done it. Yeah, you've learned a lot. Got the practice, yeah. Well, thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for letting me into your nest. It strikes me as like a nether upstairs.

What would you call it? It's like a mezzanine. I guess it's a little loft. Yeah, it's like if you were really tall. I mean, when I'm premenstrual, that's how i know i'm premenstrual because i bang my head on these on these beams and i'm like fuck damn it like okay i'm premenstrual just just just be a bit more aware of my body and where my head is but yeah it's it's a little a little a little nest yeah i love it so other than being in your your nest, where can we find you if people want

to read or listen or hear more? Yeah, well, I have a website called mygreatestperiodever.com and that's where I put sort of information about shows and things. I'm quite active on Instagram where I have my menstrually inspired little diary happening so that's Lucy's Peaches and Facebook Lucy Peach is where I put my music things. Which we haven't even asked you out because I love your music. Oh thank you. Yeah it's gorgeous. in the shadows and picked rubies from the rubble

I will never be the same again And I'll feel it And I'll feel it I will feel it Feel it And I'll feel it And I'll feel it, feel it, and I'll feel it, and I'll feel it,

and I'll feel no shame. So beautiful. Yeah, so I would definitely recommend whoever is listening to this to definitely check out your music as well. Is that all part of what you do and you create? Music, yeah, I feel feel and those songs that are in the show I wrote after journaling about my cycle for a couple of years and so it's all kind of pretty well linked but I guess um you know I've been writing a book which is coming out in June

2020 yeah with Murdoch books which is part of Alan and Unwin. It's currently called Period Queen. I like it. You like it? Yeah. Cool. Definitely, yeah. And so, yeah, I've been definitely more focused on writing and not writing songs.

But I've just started again, actually. I've got this group. It's called I Heart Songwriting, which I think you'd really enjoy Francesca, the woman who started that. And basically it's this idea that, you know, songwriters can get songstipated, as Mama Kin, Danielle says, and you've just got to do it, right? And so there's this 10-week thing, I Heart Songwriting, where you get given a topic, you get one hour and you just have to write a song every week and some of them are crap but who cares?

You're just kind of flexing that muscle again. So I'm doing that again which is really exciting because I've missed writing songs. And getting out of the grief of it. Yeah. Because it's the doing, isn't it, that then creates the thing. Yeah. Which sounds so simple but sometimes it's really hard

when your songs are painted. Exactly, exactly. And I think sometimes too you need to have a few different things that you're not necessarily multitasking but you kind of have, you know, like you have different spaces to kind of create different things and sometimes, you know, when you go and draw a picture that actually then trips something in your brain that frees you up to then go and write the article or do you know what I mean like you kind of have to service different parts of your creative labrador so that the other parts can be set free.

Yeah no it makes perfect sense it's that whole idea of baking a cake or doing gardening. And when you're not, if you, sometimes if you just sit and stare at the thing that you have to make, you just crush it. Yeah. Whereas if your brain's free while you're making something with your hands, things kind of happen. That's right. I would think there's like a sort of spider sitting in the back of my subconscious that's

like making things. Yeah. And just collecting. Yeah. It's like making things yeah and just collecting yeah it's like a bow bear that's right collecting things but if you force it yeah you can get stuck yeah yeah yeah I mean even in brainstorming for this show I've been kind of like oh equal parts terrified and just excited but like oh god where do I start and how do I and then my friend said to me um look there's this deceased estates sale and the guy used to be a costume maker there's this whole warehouse of old costumes and his partner is you know selling these things bit by bit because he's just you know drowning in tutus

and costumes do you want to come and I was sort of like yes and just feeling like I was getting heart palpitations on the way there and then you know we spent three hours in this warehouse trying on like headpieces with you know feathers and oh it was mental and and and it really did trick something in my brain to kind of free me up to then get excited about other things you know so I think just playing as well is really important in terms of being able to be creative, isn't it? Playing just for the sake of it.

Yeah, just to get unstuck. Have fun with it all. So have fun, play and track your cycle. Yeah, excellent. Three amazing pieces of advice. And if you're a bloke, support your woman to do that. Exactly. Or just know that you can be emotional too exactly

right yeah and yeah ride the wave i mean when we did the ted talk in perth this enormous guy came like bounding up to me after the ted talk like really like with fire in his eyes and i was just sort of like oh god what's gonna happen here and he said I loved that and I have three teenage daughters and my wife and and I know when they have their period when it's my turn to make the dinner and I know when to ask them for help and I know when to you know give them help and I know when to get out of the way and I love it when they have their period because I get to eat ice cream and watch movies too and I live this shit and I just this makes so much sense to me and it just was so beautiful because you know like yeah we're all cyclical and you know yeah in a rhythm and and

and I think that yeah most men obviously know women and have women in their lives and can feel that ebb and flow and yeah empathic and able to tune in and enjoy the benefits as well. Yeah, right. It makes life more exciting. Yeah, it's awesome. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Oh, my gosh. What a great show. Thank you so much. I've learned so much. Amazing. And I won't rest my body down and lose this universe I'm gonna rest even if it hurts And bleed into her in the cave you you to enter if you seek you find treasure

I will never Be the same And I feel it I will feel it, feel it And I feel it, and I feel it I feel no shame It's in my blood, magic It's in my blood Magic It's in my blood you've been listening to a podcast called just make the thing with me claire 20 and this week with lucy peach gosh what a joy this woman is to talk to i could have talked to her all day

um i always wanted to ask her to just be my friend at the end of it because she's spectacular in her thoughts and and in her to just be my friend at the end of it because she's spectacular in her thoughts and in her actions and what she brings to the world. Her music is also brilliant. We didn't talk much about that in this episode, but her music is wonderful and I love listening to her. So go over and find her on Spotify, Lucy Peach. And if you can, go and see her live, go see My Greatest Period ever or go and watch her perform she's often performing at festivals all over the country all right for more shows just like this one you can scroll back through the feed I have interviews with the wonderful singer Claire

Bodich with comedian Will Anderson with the writers of Rosehaven Silly Bacola and Luke McGregor with Chanel Lutev my my wonderful pal, where we talk about being a woman and life and creativity and all the things in between. One of my favorite episodes is also where I talk to my husband, James, about how he makes stuff. We also have a new podcast called Suggestible that is out at the moment, which is really just a way for us to talk to each other about all the things we're reading, watching and listening to. So if you want a recommendation for some stuff to read, watch and listen to or eat, go and check that one out as well.

You can also head to planetbroadcasting.com where we have lots more Australian podcasts created by people just like me. And if you want to contact the show, follow me at Claire20 on Instagram or at Just Make the Thing on Instagram. And you can also go to justmakethethingpod at gmail.com. All right. Thank you, as always, to the incredible Sir Robert Collings, who has edited this show. And I'll talk to you soon.

Bye. Bye. I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which I create, speak and write today, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, and pay my respect to their elders past, present and emerging, acknowledging that the sovereignty of this land has never been ceded.