Ep. 134: Realistic Cycle Syncing for Every Woman, with Megan Faller

Have you heard of cycle syncing -- the decision to make decisions and lifestyle choices based on where you are in your menstrual cycle? Today's guest, Megan Faller, is the founder of The Aligned Cycle and she joins us to share how connecting with this ancient practice has been so beneficial for her and why she wants to empower others with the same knowledge. My favorite part of this episode? She makes cycle syncing *realistic and accessible!* If you are interested in learning more about what cycle syncing is and how you could begin trying it out for yourself right now, this is the episode for you.

NOTE: Sorry about the audio issues on this episode!
This episode is appropriate for all audiences.

GUEST BIO:
Megan Faller is a wife and homeschooling mother of four living in Southern California and the founder of The Aligned Cycle.  In 2010, she began teaching the Creighton Model of fertility awareness and went on to co-found Restore FertilityCare.  Along her health journey began to make adjustments to her own schedule in relation to her hormonal/cycle phase to support her wellness and avoid burnout.  She's now on a mission to help other women rest and work in harmony with their natural rhythms.     

SHOW NOTES:
The Aligned Cycle with Megan Faller
@thealignedcycle

Interested in learning about the Creighton Model System? You're in the right place! 

• Register for Creighton Introductory Session: Register here for our next Introductory Session

Looking for ways to implement fertility awareness into your life and faith? Check out out most helpful resources: 

• Substack Newsletter (free)
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Have a question or want to give us feedback? 

Transcript

Caitlin: 0:06

Welcome to the Woven Well Podcast. I'm your host, Caitlin Estes. I'm a certified fertility care practitioner with a master divinity degree. Each episode will cover a topic that helps educate and empower you and your fertility while honoring the deep connection your fertility has with your faith. Let's get started. Welcome back to the Woven Well podcast. We mention frequently here how our reproductive systems are not isolated from the rest of us. Each of us is a complex human being that is mind, body, and spirit. And even our bodies are beautifully complex systems that all work together to keep us going physically. So how can we honor this interconnectedness of mind, body , spirit in order to nurture our overall health and wellbeing? What small daily decisions can we make that will invest in our health and our fertility for now and into the future? I've invited Megan Faller, founder of The Aligned Cycle to join us today and talk through realistic ways that we can do this. Megan is a wife and homeschooling mother of four living in Southern California. In 2010, she began teaching the Creighton model of fertility awareness and went on to co-found Restore Fertility Care. Along her health journey, she began to make adjustments to her own schedule in relation to her hormonal and cycle phases to support her wellness and avoid burnout. She's now on a mission to help other women rest and work in harmony with their natural rhythms, and that's what she's here to talk about with us today. Megan , welcome to the show.

Megan: 1:45

Thank you so much, Caitlin . I'm so excited to be here and to chat with you.

Caitlin: 1:50

I can't wait to hear all about it . So why don't you start off by giving us a little more context for what you do through The Aligned Cycle?

Megan: 1:59

With The Aligned Cycle, I help women essentially cycle sync, if you're familiar with cycle syncing their schedule and their their work and their rest to their menstrual cycle. So that looks like understanding what's happening in the different phases of their menstrual cycle as their hormones shift, right? Because as women, we have these hormones that are shifting and as women who are charting our cycle or fertility care practitioners, we know the power of these hormones, but there's this whole other level of their power over almost every aspect of our daily life, right? Our energy, our mood, our food choices. There's so much that's impacted by our hormones. And so I help women understand what's happening. You know, what's typical, there's kind of a typical pattern that about 90% of women experience. I help women understand that, and then we use that information to kind of apply to their life and optimize their rest, their work, other activities. So they have a schedule that really works for them and then integrates right, different aspects of their life with their, their wellness.

Caitlin: 3:07

This is going to be really good. I'm so excited to hear more about this. Now, as I mentioned earlier, you began as a fertility care practitioner. So what led you to found The Aligned Cycle?

Megan: 3:20

Yeah, so I worked for about seven years with women teaching them and couples teaching them the fertility care method. And I loved it. I loved so many aspects of it, but I got to a point around the seven year mark where things were changing for me personally, I had some health issues that I wanted to focus on and I thought it was time to step away. And I, I stepped away kind of with a heavy heart, but also knowing I wanted to come back into this space because I love this space. I love educating women on, you know, what's going on so they have more awareness about their bodies and their health, and that they can really , you know , meet their goals, whatever that is for , for what they want and understand themselves. And so I took that step away and I dove into like health and healing, right? I was reading all the books and I came along this idea right across in one of the books. I read that in traditional Chinese medicine, they recommend resting during the menstrual cycle. And I thought, well, that's interesting, right? Because you're, I'm just kind of like pulling things like, okay, like I could try this and I could try this. And some things that you're told you're supposed to try are like expensive, right? Like get this expensive lab work, right? That may or may not inform something or these expensive supplements. And I thought, that's interesting. I can do that. This is free, this is accessible. And so I did, and we as women in our society are told, no, you just keep going. Right? All of the commercials on menstrual products are, you don't have to slow down for anything. You just keep on keeping on, right? And so I found it so helpful for me personally, I'm kind of a sensitive, very introverted person, and I felt that kind of like slow down and rest period. So helpful for me in those couple of like days of my hormonal low during my heaviest days of bleeding. And I felt like I came out of that hormonal low with more clarity, with more energy, and it just like, kind of felt like it paid off dividends During the rest, right? And then as I came out, but even then as I kind of started to test this and trial it , I didn't fully appreciate all that was going on with the hormones. And so I came across something as I was getting ready to get back into my work and figuring out what that was going to look like. I came across this article and I think you can still find it now, it's really old. It's like a really old website where this woman taught at risk young women to chart their cycles. And it was a really rough charting. And they kind of drew this line and had pictures as they went through, like to represent how they were feeling or their emotions. And she said that it was so incredibly helpful and powerful for these women who were, you know, coming from difficult situations, had difficult lives , and would at some points in their cycle, usually their hormonal low would make bad choices. They were feeling a certain way and they would go and, and do something, right, that was destructive in some way. And that through this process, these young women began to understand what was going on internally and that it was temporary, right? Like, here I am again, these are the thoughts or tendencies I have at this time in my cycle. And then they could know like, oh, this is just a moment of the big picture. Like this is just what my, my emotions and my body does at this time, and I don't have to right act out of that, right? I can just wait it out. And I thought, wow, like how powerful and how much we all as women need this message, this awareness in our daily lives. And so from then on I kind of put the two together and I started to understand more about what was going on. I started to understand more about the hormonal high or your time of fertility and appreciating things with like that, you know, that you've experienced, but kind of had more information and like concrete, like, oh yes, this is what I feel. During that time I started to plan my cycle around that. And then I thought, this can really benefit all women. And that's kind of where this started.

Caitlin: 7:34

Knowledge is so powerful and obviously beneficial for you on a personal level and also these other women that are out in the world learning, learning, learning. I'm sure your clients as well. So would you be willing to share some of the things that you have found to make the most impact?

Megan: 7:51

I would say, again, like I tell my clients, and I will just say it from now, for forever is like rest, start with rest, start with rest. Because again, we have this deep ingrained idea that we must always be productive, right? And that, that taking a break, taking a pause is not, is not what we should be doing is wrong somehow. And there's there's so much within that to, to let go of, right? To understand rest is productive. Yes. To understand that as women, we are not linear, right? That's the linear model. Like every day looks the same, keep going like just, you know, continue on. And we are just not linear as women. There's so many aspects, yes, our menstrual cycle, but even like other aspects, whether it's, you know , the cycle of pregnancy and postpartum, whether it's the larger cycle of coming, you know, your first menarchy, right? Menstruation and then going through this cycle of menopause. It's just, we are cyclical and we don't get that message or that encouragement to live within that cyclical-ness and to like adhere to more of a cyclical consistency, instead of a , a linear consistency. Because oftentimes we think this is how I'm going to do what I want to do or achieve what I want to achieve or, you know, just live out my call is to be in this linear cycle of consistency. But it's like, no, no, we need to reframe that. We need to give ourselves permission to utilize the gifts of our cycle and to also respond to the low of our cycle. So , so really number one, I would say rest. And , recently I read the book, the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. It's good, it's really good. And in the author talks about he went from like being a pastor of, you know, all these big churches and just like this constant like cycle of overwhelm and overloaded. And he says, you know, when you think about like the life that Jesus led and like how he approached responding to his call, right? Which is this massive call , he didn't do it with hurry, right? He did it in this way of from peace, right? And so for us to be able to feel that peace, we have to have moments of rest. And we have to have them so that we can then go out and create after, and then we have to retreat. We have to have these kind of, you know, expansions and contractions. So, I would say number one rest, and then also for me, I would say using my hormonal high, well, because sometimes in our hormonal high we're feeling confident, we're feeling energetic, maybe willing to take a risk, but at the same time, so it's a great time to get things done and kind of push toward, you know, a project or create something new. But at the same time, a challenge in this part of our cycle is that we are very distractible, right? So if we are not kind of keeping in front of us, our priorities are where we want to focus our time and our energy, we can kind of like let our Hy-Vee very highly dispersed, right? Like, oh , where did it go? Right? Instead of focusing it in one way. So I would say , for me those have been the two biggest ways, but there's so many insights once you kind of start paying attention and learning that can be just really, really helpful and to give you, you know, peace and help you with your decision making throughout the cycle,

Caitlin: 11:28

I feel like that is a very faithful model of things. You mentioned how Jesus healed and served out of a place of peace. And I just think about how often Jesus went away to be on his own and pray, and he was sleeping in the boat as they were traveling, and he, he took time for rest. And it's not even just Jesus that we see this example from, although that would certainly be sufficient, but we also see creator God include rest into creation itself. And so you talked about having these cycles of rest and creativity and we are called to create as our creator gave an , gave us an example for. So I'm just thinking about the fact that this is such a beautiful extension of how we are called to live our lives, a place of rest and a place of creativity, all in honor of God. So it's a beautiful way to incorporate that with our womanhood and how that is a beautiful gift. I'm wondering, it seems like this is a way for us to connect with God in a unique and very special way as a woman. And so I just wanted to say that I think that's a beautiful thing and I'm excited about it. Okay, I was talking about Creighton and I think that a lot of our listeners are Creighton users or using some form of fertility awareness. And so I would imagine that you could utilize that information very specifically to be involved in your work with The Aligned Cycle.

Megan: 13:01

Oh yeah. So you can get started even without that information, but that information is so helpful to really , having , finding a better connection, like noticing patterns more accurately, right? The more information you have and confidence you have in identifying when your window of fertility opens, when peak happens , all of those things are just so helpful. So for the woman who is charting her cycle currently, I would say again, start with some rest, right? And so what that's going to look like is you likely know your luteal phase length, I would call it phase four typically. And then what I recommend women do, it's, it's different when your hormonal low starts. There's some variance there, but in general, the hormonal low hits most women about one to two days before their cycle starts and then continues into the first couple days of their cycle. So with that in mind, you can go ahead and project forward next time you hit peak, or if you've already hit peak and you're waiting on your next cycle to begin, figure out when is that going to happen for you and schedule a little bit of rest. And that can look like a lot of things, right? It can look like simply taking some things off your plate that are unnecessary, right? That you've put on there that you don't need to be there. It can look like asking for help or outsourcing something that's got to happen, right? There's a lot of different ways you can, you can put that in your cycle maybe even, or plan for it. You can even like plan for a shorter day or just make sure that you have some quiet, and if you already have a full day planned, then make sure that like in between that you take some time to rest and retreat and kind of renew yourself, whatever that looks like for you, right ? There's seven kinds of rest, which we're not going to get all into now, you know, physical, mental, emotional, all those ways, and we all need them in different combinations. So what kind of rest do you feel like you're craving? And then put it on your calendar, schedule it, and you know, treat it as a hard fast commitment to yourself and don't, don't fill those spots in . So that's the first thing I would say. And then , if you want, women can grab my guide, which will walk through the different phases and then they can start to kind of compare, like, do I feel this in this way, right? Am I feeling hungrier, right, in my luteal phase? Am I feeling more distractible during my hormonal high? When I'm fertile, am I feeling like when do I feel my fog lift and I'm kind of coming out and wanting to schedule things or commit to things at the beginning of the cycle, there's like so many little different things that you might notice that might be really helpful. So you can also pull that and kind of cross check it with your cycle, but I would say start with rest and then you can expand from there.

Caitlin: 15:48

That is so practical, so accessible, everyone can do that because you gave different examples of ways to incorporate rest. So rest doesn't have to mean taking a day off of work, which not everyone can do. It can simply mean finding different aspects of rest that impact you the most and then practicing those in some small way. So we talked at the beginning or I gave an intro in the beginning about these small daily decisions that can make an impact. And this is what I hear you saying as you're talking about the whole cycle and you're thinking about how to break it down on a daily basis to make small little changes that impact the overall cycle, but your overall quality of life as well, which of course we're always about here at Woven Well. So when you start to make these changes, these small daily changes, keeping in mind where you are in your cycle and what's going on, what kind of outcomes can you expect from that?

Megan: 16:44

Yeah, so one of the biggest ones is just more peace, right? Because we're not fighting against where we are. And I think an extension of that, if we're, if you're a woman who's focusing on your health and your cycle is once we decrease, right? Our overwhelm or misalignment of scheduling, we can also decrease our cortisol, right? So any of these small changes that you are making to support your wellness, whether it's like eating more carbs because you need them, whether it's more rest during a certain time, whatever it is that is impactful and it can kind of multiply, right? So your cortisol's lower, you're feeling more energetic, you make better decisions, your body, you know, your cycle starts to respond to that positively. So in that way, it's like its own right cycle of feedback , in slight small changes, making a big difference over a period of time. So I mean, self-knowledge, right? Self-knowledge and self-awareness is huge. More confidence, like I said, in your decision making and knowing what's right for you at a certain time and, and what's not. And setting boundaries around that. I think these are all small things that can, you know, you can experience. And then I'd say we're all different. Like we're all unique and we all have unique tendencies. So depending on what you need more of or less of, you might have, you know, a unique experience, an outcome versus you know, a woman next to you who's dealing with other things in her life. Those women might experience slightly different outcomes or results , based on their unique needs.

Caitlin: 18:18

That would be a great reason for someone to work with you specifically. So I'm going to make sure to have ways to work with The Aligned Cycle in the show notes . So listeners, if you're interested in that, make sure to click there and check out more about Megan . Megan , thank you so much for being on the show and sharing just a little glimpse of the knowledge you have about cycles and overall health.

Megan: 18:40

You're welcome. Thank you so much, Caitlin. It was a pleasure to be on with you.

Caitlin: 18:44

We at Woven Well care so much about women's health and about our overall health. We believe that every woman deserves to be treated with that respect and dignity as she's made in the very image of God. So we hope that these resources help you to understand more about your body, your health, and how to advocate for your needs. If you'd like to hear more about these topics, make sure to subscribe to the show and get these short weekly episodes wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have a thought or question about the topic that we talked about today, you can actually send us a text message. So just click the link in the show notes to do that. As always, thanks for listening as we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.