072: SOLO EP: [FEMININE FLOW] Cycle Syncing, productivity, personal development, & meditation

What if aligning your daily routine with your hormonal cycles could transform your productivity and well-being? Today I'm diving into a solo episode providing an update on life, spirituality, and how cycle syncing (or cyclical living) has changed my life.  This solo episode of The Other Way explores how embracing your natural rhythms can be a game-changer, especially within a patriarchal society that often overlooks the unique needs of women - and the cycles of nature. 

Today I'll be covering:

• Life, business, and spirituality updates (including my deepening meditation practice and how it's been shifting my life!)
• Cycle syncing: what it is, how it works, and how "feminine" productivity and "feminine time" can look like
• I walk through each phase of the cycle with TIPS!

In the podcast, I mention our FREE handout to go deeper. To grab it (FREE! :)) tap here: https://bit.ly/CycleGuideInFlow

To get 10% off your order of In Flow (www.inflowplanner.com) use: podcast10

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

Hello my friends and welcome back to the Other Way. I'm your host, kasia, and today you are diving into a solo podcast with me. Today's theme is going to be a little bit of a life update, along with cycle syncing, what it is, how to implement it into your life, the power of feminine productivity in a patriarchal society, and how I've implemented cyclical living and cycle syncing into my own life and the changes that I've experienced since doing so. But before we do that, I want to share kind of an update of what's been going on across mind, body and spirit in my life. So, professional news the Inflow Planner is now available live. I think the last time that we connected it was still on presale. It's available online and in a handful of incredible retailers, and I'm so excited to have kicked off this process.

Speaker 1: 1:11

For those of you who don't know, the inflow planner is a planner that helps women align their schedule with their energy, based on the ebbs and flows of their hormones, and it's really about reconnecting to what I like to call feminine time. So, unlike men, whose testosterone cycle refreshes every 24 hours, women actually cycle over the course of about 28 days and during that time, if you've ever seen a hormonal chart. There are a lot of hormones that are rising and falling over that period of time and these changes really influence our productivity, creativity, libido and more. And inflow is the first of its kind physical planner that actually helps women adjust their schedule around their energy, not the other way around. So it's absolutely personalized, it's OBJYN-backed, it includes over a hundred tips on movement, diet and more, and now it's live and available.

Speaker 1: 2:14

This has been a really long and arduous journey, to be honest, for all my early stage founders out there, the saying that it is twice as expensive and takes twice as long as you expect is entirely true, and I would say that the process of building this company has really been an exercise in surrender, frankly, and often the game plan that I expected is definitely not the outcome that I had and it's really been difficult for me Difficult in the sense of emotionally difficult, not like the reality has actually been quite wonderful if I think about the day-to-day and I feel so aligned with what I'm doing. But the process of surrendering and leaning into trust when things are going not as expected has definitely been a challenge, but it's also been something that I think has really been positively impacting my relationship to control and surrender and so for that I am definitely grateful. If anyone out there is into human design, I'm actually a 3-5 projector and experimentation is a core theme in my life and for a while I felt very misaligned and frustrated with that part of myself. But I think the process over the last couple of years from leaving a 10-year tech career, pivoting away from that, to studying Chinese medicine in graduate school, to launching this podcast, to evolving this podcast, to building this product over the course of the year and to finally be launching it and to be launching a physical product as opposed to a tech product, which is where my background lies it definitely feels very in line with the energy of a three five experimenter in human design. And yeah, it's been. Really it's been a humbling experience.

Speaker 1: 4:15

And, side note, if there are any projector CEOs out there, please message me. I would love to connect with you. I'm definitely at. I definitely at times struggle with embracing my projector-like nature in human design. By the way, if you don't know what I'm talking about at all, definitely scroll down to some of the human design episodes that I have on here. My recent one with Sarah Tullin was Chef's Kiss and I've heard several people have gone on to have readings with her and she's exceptional. But anyway, I digress, but I would really love to meet some other projectors that are about two years out from starting a business. I think that would be really interesting and perhaps a bit of a perspective shift. So, moving on, but in the same realm, from a mind, body, spirit point of view, surrender and trust, which has definitely been a theme in my physical world, has also been something that I've been exploring from my spirituality perspective as well.

Speaker 1: 5:16

A couple of weeks ago yeah, actually this would have been my last solo episode I think I shared that I was going on retreat to Esalen. The roads were closed off in both directions, the retreat was canceled about a day before we were supposed to leave and I was really looking forward to this retreat. I felt like I really needed it. I was starting to feel a little bit exhausted and I needed the downtime and I really needed some time to reflect and go inward. And so Zach, my husband and I, we decided to take the week off and try to make the most of our time that we had set apart, set aside, and so we took the week off, we stayed remote and it was an okay week. I was definitely struggling with really letting go and being present. It was a really nice week, but what really really actually shifted the entire experience was pretty much the last day. Zach and I had gone on a lot of hikes during this time and we ended up going for a local hike near us and we were talking during this time about mindfulness and I've actually been really grappling with the concept that I think is very present in the wellness world, which is that it feels like everyone needs to be quote unquote healed in some way.

Speaker 1: 6:45

And I'll speak from my experience. I feel like there's this nonstop kind of barrage of healing and I think some of it comes from the real truth that we are, in fact, a deeply I guess we are all deeply wounded as humans, we have difficult experiences that we're going through and that there is quite a bit of healing that needs to happen. But I think some of it is also mixed in with a lot of marketing out there. You are not fixed until you do Y or X, or do this sound bath, do this kundalini breathwork of 90 days, all these different spiritual wellness modalities for healing, kind of spiritual wellness modalities for healing, and I spent a lot of time just really over that week, the week off, really noodling on how much of this is actually needed. It feels like there's always work to be done, work to be done on myself, and I was really musing on that and I was asking Zach, my husband, what if mindfulness is at the root of it? What if just becoming aware of what's coming up and the trigger and the reaction and the imposter syndrome and the fear and the trauma of whatever capital T or lowercase t, what if that awareness is really the most important thing and then from there we can choose what to do with it. May it be go back to our past and reprogram that experience and heal from that and understand it, or go into the future and just change the trajectory of how we would react to it. And really, if that were to be true, if mindfulness is at the root of it, perhaps it would just be enough. How important is it to understand the root in it? Perhaps it would just be enough. How important is it to understand the root in order to heal it?

Speaker 1: 8:28

This is where we were chatting, and I kid you not that at that very moment in the woods, randomly and this wasn't by Green Gulch, which is actually near a monastery, zach and I ran into a monk from Abia Jiri Monastery lineage. He lives in the UK full-time, but he was visiting his family here and we ended up speaking with him for about 45 minutes in the woods. We brought up this concept, we talked about all different things, but he said something that really stuck with me and I'm bringing it back full circle, because it really spoke to this theme of surrender and trust, which is. He mentioned that a lot of people speak to the practice of meditation as a means to help them quote expand their comfort zone, become more comfortable with discomfort. But what if there just wasn't a comfort zone? What if that just didn't exist? And everything fear, joy, pain, bliss. What if that was all just welcome?

Speaker 1: 9:32

And this line really stuck with me and it's been such a core theme in my life over the past few weeks. What if I allowed it all to be there and to be present Imposter syndrome before or during a big event? What if I just welcomed it? What if I was experiencing that existential fear of failure that comes up so often? What if I just welcomed that, breathed into it? What if I witnessed the judgment that I'm having towards somebody else, or the trigger, and I could just allow it to be there, not trying to change it, not trying to heal it, not trying to understand it, just could allow it to be there. Friends, when I tell you that this has been completely life-changing, it truly has been completely life-changing, as I shared, I felt like for so many years, as somebody who invests in therapy and all these things as much as I've been able to, it felt like these things that come up have been things that I need to quote, unquote, fix, but by embracing them and exploring them as a welcome part of my life, it has just given me some space to have compassion for them and really soothe into the moment.

Speaker 1: 10:46

And so, whereas my previous experience of meditation has been focused on changing my experience and sitting down for the 10 to 30 minutes of just quietude and reflection and depth and connection which obviously, as any meditator knows, is not quite always the case because, at least in my experience, I find myself often just planning out my day during that time and trying to harness my thoughts. So I'm not thinking about that but what if I just allowed in my meditation and in every single day, the presence of these experiences, these thoughts, these emotions to just be there and I just allowed them to be welcome. And since doing that, I've just witnessed such a profound shift in my life. I noticed that I'm not trying and striving to change the experience. Obviously I have an aim, that I prepare and I wish and hope for that goal, but when it doesn't turn out the way that I want it to, I'm able to surrender to that a lot better not always, but a lot better. And so this has provided me with a lot of freedom.

Speaker 1: 11:57

And I share this with you because, as far as life updates go, this one has been quite a huge life update and frankly, it's also shifted a lot of things for me, because I feel as though I spend so much time investing in fixing the things that are coming up understanding the root, healing the root in whatever way to be magnetic, kundalini, like all these different things and suddenly every single moment becomes an opportunity for just relating to the moment differently and it just really allows for a lot of freedom but also a lot of identity mixtures. How much can I lean on the grasping of manifestation and also practice equanimity of letting go. So I'm practicing with this, but this is definitely life update, spirituality update, work update, and that's what's been present. So I want to shift gears now to chat with you a bit about cycle syncing and cyclical living, because, as much as this entire season of the podcast has been focused on women's health and spirituality and feminine flow, we haven't really talked about that explicitly and, as I've shared, the vision behind Inflow and the planner itself is really rooted in the concept that we as women are moving perhaps against our nature and I would even say globally.

Speaker 1: 13:23

As a society, we are ignoring the cyclical nature or the cyclical nature within nature, the cyclical cycles, the cycles within nature. We are ignoring it. As a society, we treat every single day in our Western culture as the same Monday through Friday. Weekends are weekends, right, we just have this concept of maximizing every moment. There aren't these ebbs and flows in our lives, which is why I think, also from a meditation point of view I and I think so many others, struggle with change and things going off track and things being different because we have things planned out in a certain way and there's predictability in that structure. Yet nature is cyclical and and as I really reflected on what would be a really powerful way to look at time differently. I felt that it really starts within our bodies and for women, for female identifying bodies, it starts within the wisdom of our cycle and for women who don't bleed, we have the wisdom of the cycles of the moon to guide us and it provides a really different concept of time, of productivity, and it really flips the whole notion of hustle culture. And every day is the same on its head and so Inflow really explores what does the world look like when we take our bodies and we take nature and we take those cycles into account and we adjust our schedule, our movement, the foods that we consume, even to support the natural cycles and the natural changes that our bodies go through.

Speaker 1: 15:30

Quick, little kind of PSA. There is actually a free handout that I'm linking in the show notes that will go deeper into what I'm describing, but I'm going to walk everyone through a full cycle to just get an idea of what these different phases, so to speak, which, by the way, these phases are really intertwined. They're not like just clear set days. If you look at a hormonal chart, you'll see that there's an ebb and a flow and it's very gentle and it's not. Oh, clock strikes 12 and you're in another phase. It's actually very fluid. There's a handout that goes alongside this, that describes everything in more depth. There is a visual component to it as well. If you want to see the female hormonal cycle, if you want to see the connection to our energy and our hormones, so you can go ahead and jump into that or listen to it alongside what I'm going to share with you.

Speaker 1: 16:22

So, without further ado, let's jump into the cycle. So, day one of your cycle, this is day one of your bleed. This is the start of a new phase. It is the phase of menstruation. Just like the new year represents for many of us the start of a new phase, but it also takes place, at least in the Western world, in the winter time. This menstrual phase is a deep, wintry, restful time. It can last anywhere from four to seven or eight days, depending on your body. This is really the theme of rest.

Speaker 1: 16:57

From a productivity standpoint, you may notice that your body slows down, you may feel the urge to go more inward, your intuition is heightened, while your energy is lower. And if you look at like the yin and the yang symbol, the yin is the feminine, dark, restful energy. It is the strongest during this time. And so, in terms of things to do or things not to do to optimize this period of time, let's talk about movement. Less is way more in terms of things to do or things not to do to optimize this period of time. Let's talk about movement. Less is way more Napping, walking, stretching, resting.

Speaker 1: 17:36

From a productivity point of view, the theme is really reflection planning, minimizing social activities and big events where possible, and really focusing on the MVP minimum viable productivity. That term actually comes from a acronym in, I guess, the business world, but yes, mvp minimum viable productivity. And, by the way, don't worry because you will make up for it later in the month, and I think that is the important thing to note. I struggled a lot with this. We're so wired in our society to be go all the time that not doing can feel uncomfortable, but I promise if you nourish yourself during this time, you will notice a bounty of energy and efficiency that will come later. From a food standpoint, eat magnesium-rich foods to help decrease bloating and cramps and also iron-replenishing foods to help with the loss of blood during this time.

Speaker 1: 18:38

And from a spiritual standpoint, this premenstrual time right beforehand, once they start their bleed, when they start the menstrual phase. They just have a lot of clarity during this time and this is also something that comes up in the new moon period. From the moon cycle's point of view, it's just a beautiful time for reflection and starting to get clarity and set intentions and planting those seeds. So the next phase of the cycle, which is oftentimes referred to as the follicular phase, but technically the follicular phase actually starts at day one. So this is just part two of the follicular phase. I will call this the renew phase.

Speaker 1: 19:21

This is seasonally a springtime phase. It starts from day 7 or day 8 and lasts until day 14. This phase symbolizes the rising energy of your body. You may notice more creativity as you near day 14 and more libido, sensuality and just an increase in the vibes, and just an increase in the vibes. From a movement point of view, this is a great time to listen to your body. Increase towards higher intensity. Workouts and movements, sweat it out, dance it out, increase intensity towards day 14. Research actually shows that the rise in estrogen that happens during this time into your ovulatory window, which happens around day 14. It can be protective during this time against injury. So this is a perfect time to run, jump dance if you feel called, as you near that day 14 window, especially Productivity-wise.

Speaker 1: 20:16

The theme is creativity. Just like spring, brings in new vibes of potential. This is a powerful time to bring in new ideas, new projects, new energy. You've just done some reflecting. This is a time to transition into creation and collaboration. From a spiritual standpoint, this can be a beautiful time to explore embodiment movement practices such as dance and really free form movement. So turn on music, tune into your body and see what goes from there.

Speaker 1: 20:51

All right, as we move past day 14, so day 14 has got transition time. We enter the connect phase. Scientifically speaking, we are also transitioning into the second half of your cycle, which is known as the known as the luteal phase. This is the first part of your luteal phase. This phase, seasonally, would be the summer phase. It symbolically starts around the peak of ovulation day 14, day 15. It's a very fertile, social, collaborative time, movement wise, your energy will still be high. It might actually be peaking at this time. So this is a great time to continue with the spin classes, the circuit training, the sweated out movements. I will also share that personally for me, in kind of the later part of this summer phase, I noticed myself slowing down a bit, craving slower, more intentional weight workouts. So listen to your body, okay, and if you're feeling energized, go for it.

Speaker 1: 21:53

I also want to pause for a minute here. If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you'll know that I studied Chinese medicine. I started a grad school program in 2021, and one of the things that really floored me as I was in my studies and also in speaking to some of the amazing guests that we've had on this podcast, is that Chinese medicine really focuses on the theme of balance, and there's just something so beautiful about that, about reframing the notion that we should just maximize things out, because the term burning the candle at both ends it's real. I don't know how else to describe it. I don't know about you, but at least in my experience I have had this mentality that I think is just embedded in Western culture that if we have more energy, do more, max it out, optimize it, and I think that leaving some room in the tank is actually very important, because if we go full on ham, like burning it out all the time, we do take away from something. It's not an endless well, and it's almost like balancing a bank account. If you spend everything that's in the account, you start to go into debt, right? So I think the thought process of really leaving some cushion, some room for ourselves has been really important in my own health journey, and especially as women. A lot of us have been conditioned to follow a workout plan or follow a diet routine, and I think this is where our cycle can be such a beautiful means to tuning into our own individual bodies. If you start to notice your energy draining earlier, that's a sign that your body just needs slower movement, it needs a little bit more rest, and that is okay, because if we deplete ourselves in our fertile years, we will see the side effects of that in our later years, in our wise years. So, speaking of productivity and movement, let's talk about productivity for a minute.

Speaker 1: 24:01

In the summer phase, the connect phase, this is all about connection. Your meetings, your presentations, your sales demos. This is a great time to really be social, really collaborate, really optimize your schedule for these activities Now. It doesn't mean that during other times of month you cannot do these things, but it means that, when possible, optimize for these social connections during these times. They will flow with such ease and it's just such a beautiful way to bring awareness to where you are in your cycle and how you can really optimize for your own individual body. Let's talk for a moment about diet. During this luteal phase, or beginning parts of the luteal phase, serotonin will start to decrease and this can lead to an anxious or depressive mood, especially as we enter that final phase. So, to prep for that, boosting your mood with chicken eggs, omega-rich foods can be extremely supportive. All right, and now entering the final phase of your cycle.

Speaker 1: 25:11

This is energetically the inner autumn period of time. We call it the reflect phase, the wise woman phase, the what was a really great term that I heard for this the wild woman phase. Yes, not wise, wild woman phase. This is a deeply shadowy time, but I say that with reverence. This is a time where you may notice your inner mean girl, pop up, your insecure self, the parts of you that feel more blue or frustrated. This is all coming to the surface and this is actually, I think, a really powerful time to start to witness what is hidden deep underneath and to start to clean that up and nest both the inner and outer parts of ourselves from a movement time. Slow down, pilates, sculpt, yoga. Mindful, intentional movements are key here.

Speaker 1: 26:04

From a productivity point of view, you'll have a lot of focus in the earlier parts of your of this phase. So day 22, day 23, you might still be focused as you start to near day 27, 28,. Listen to your body, start to slow even further down. Productivity-wise, mark things off your to-do list a little bit earlier and then prepare to wind down for the winter phase, which is again the start of a new cycle, the next bleed. Spiritually, you may notice, your intuition is at an all-time high Journal. Allow things to surface, witness what comes up. This can be a period of shedding and healing, if you allow it to be. And then, diet-wise, you may notice some cravings. During this time, protein will help you stabilize your blood sugar and complex carbs will keep you more satiated, so prioritize those. So there you have it, day one through day one of the next cycle.

Speaker 1: 27:03

I hope this has been really helpful and I want to share a bit about my own personal journey transitioning to really what I call feminine time journey, transitioning to really what I call feminine time. And, as I've shared on many episodes, by default, I would say that I exist as a very young, very type A person, as I alluded to earlier, I have learned that this has trade-offs and over the course of my life and my career, I have experienced those firsthand. Overworking and really climbing at intense speeds on a corporate work level would lead to health issues like endometriosis, flare-ups, eczema, flares and burnout, both physically and mentally. And I would say that through really starting to honor my body's cues instead of just the thoughts that drove me, really listening to how I felt and allowing that to start to take the driver's seat and I think my mindfulness practice has helped with this as well I've just noticed such a powerful shift in my life. I designed this planner with my beautiful sister-in-law, ada, and our resident OBGYN, dr Wright Terrell, as a tool that I knew I needed and that I believe so many women out there need as well. I was planning and maximizing and optimizing every single day, but I wasn't really optimizing for the things that mattered my health, a sustainable approach to productivity, my overall balance. I was maximizing honestly, and that comes with a trade-off and I'll also share that.

Speaker 1: 28:45

This has been, and it still is, a journey for me. I don't think that it's easy to move across the grain, or I guess, yeah, move upstream in many ways, our society is programmed to go all out as intensely as possible, but this is why every single woman that chooses to take back her power, chooses to align with time a bit differently, is just paving the path for other women, for new cultural shifts. I will share that this isn't like in flow. The planner is the end all be all in this. I think that really choosing to align our lives however that makes sense to you, in a way that is in harmony with your energy, your body, your needs, is just really important.

Speaker 1: 29:38

If you're someone who emails me, you'll actually know, just to give you one example of this, that I have an out of office up that shares that I only check emails once every couple of days and I actually struggled with putting that out there. When I first did it. I was all nervous or of people, especially for the podcast. I email with a lot of high profile guests and I don't want them to think that I'm unresponsive and I had all these shoulds in my head, but honestly, making that change of putting my time and my energy to certain things at certain times and being really intentional with that has just been. That email example is just one of the many ways that I intentionally set up my life to be in harmony with my body and my mind and my soul, honestly, and so tools maybe podcasts, meditation, a planner, a journal, whatever you feel called to those are just some ways that we can support ourselves on that journey, but I think the most important thing is to take that first step.

Speaker 1: 31:01

So one other thing I want to ask or I guess answer that has come up before is how do I feel about tech, products versus physical products, products versus physical products? Inflow is actually a physical planner, not a digital one, and I will share. I love tech. I worked for tech in over a decade leading software teams but there's just something so beautiful and so special about a pen to paper moment and experience. Research shows that pen to paper journaling cultivates embodiment and mind-body awareness, and in our day, where we are spending so much time distracted by the next thing on our phone, there's something very special about that, and so I think this is just one of the ways that we can take a moment, a breather and reconnect to ourselves.

Speaker 1: 31:53

All right, so there you have it, an overview of cycle syncing, a life update, and again, if you want to go deeper, please check out the totally free handout in the show notes. It goes into everything I discussed and more, with tips and outlines. I think you're going to love it and I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you have comments or questions or want to chat about anything that I shared, please reach out. All right, see you next time.

Speaker 1: 32:22

Thank you so much for tuning in and I look forward to hearing from each and every one of you. Bye, thank you so much for tuning into the other way. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a five star review. It really helps the podcast grow and I'm ever so grateful. If you want to stay connected, you can find information on how in our show notes. And finally, if you're curious about inflow and want free resources around cyclical living or moon cycles, check out inflowplannercom. And, of course, for all my listeners, you can use the code podcast10 and that's all. Lowercase podcast10 for 10% off any purchase. All right, that's all for today. See you next time.